FYI...

- http://preview.tinyurl.com/33xfx7
May 14 2007 ~ (CNN) "Free software is great, and corporate America loves it. It's often high-quality stuff that can be downloaded free off the Internet and then copied at will. It's versatile - it can be customized to perform almost any large-scale computing task - and it's blessedly crash-resistant... But now there's a shadow hanging over Linux and other free software, and it's being cast by Microsoft. The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft's patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google, Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won't be free anymore... (MS) says that the Linux kernel - the deepest layer of the free operating system, which interacts most directly with the computer hardware - violates 42 Microsoft patents. The Linux graphical user interfaces - essentially, the way design elements like menus and toolbars are set up - run afoul of another 65, he claims. The Open Office suite of programs, which is analogous to Microsoft Office, infringes 45 more. E-mail programs infringe 15..."

Er, more...

- http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39612
15 May 2007 ~ "...Microsoft has not said which patents it believes have been violated by Open Office and apparently it is leaving the world to guess..."

FYI...

- http://www.theregister.com/2007/05/24/microsoft_novell_patents/
24 May 2007 ~ "...Microsoft cited administrative overhead for not detailing the 235 Microsoft patents its chief legal counsel recently told Forbes exist in Linux and open source. Microsoft patents attorney Jim Markwith told OSBC it would be "impossible" for Redmond's bureaucrats to respond to the volume of responses that would result from disclosure. Also, apparently, it's ungentlemanly to name names. "Most people who are familiar with patents know it's not standard operating procedure to list the patents," Markwith said. "The response of that would be administratively impossible to keep up with." Far better to rattle sabers instead..."


.

Hello,
Microsoft can claim anything they want.
They WILL lose the battle and the world will be free.
Linux revolution is unstoppable.
Mrk

FYI...

- http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40488
21 June 2007 ~ "...The Vole has been on the prowl after claiming various Linuxes infringe hundreds of its patents. It has used this stick to hold over the heads of some Linux firms while getting them to sign cooperative agreements. Linspire, Novell and Xandros caved in and signed up but Ubuntu told the Vole to go take a hike. Mandriva joined in. As far as Mandriva is concerned, "there has been absolutely no hard evidence from any of the FUD propagators that Linux and open source applications are in breach of any patents. So we think that, as in any democracy, people are innocent unless proven guilty and we can continue working in good faith," wrote Mandriva big cheese François Bancilhon on the Mandriva web site*... "So we don’t believe it is necessary for us to get protection from Microsoft to do our job or to pay protection money to anyone"..."
* http://corp.mandriva.com/webteam/2007/06/19/we-will-not-go-to-canossa/


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Hi Aplus

How's things shakin' good I hope.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4509483852.html

Sooooooooo

When Microsith decides to pull the plug on Codeweavers and bundle it only with Xandros, turning it into Win2K lite....

Linux had best be prepared to live with and develope Wine or...

go completely "native"...no...not THAT KIND OF NATIVE!

again

good to read your stuff, you always do well thought out stuff as opposed to my rambling stuff!

woodsmoke

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