If you are not already aware of it, it looks like Microsoft legal legions have launch the final onslaught on Free and Open Software by claiming that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. CNN is reporting it and the whole blogosphere along with all the industry analysts. Read the whole thing for yourself here. Not the bad piece of article, and at first I was shocked : I could they do that, bad bad bad microsoft. That’s how I reacted, at first, but after putting some distance to the subject here is what I think about it, after all everyone has an opinion on it, why not me :
- Vista is a failure, it is very expensive, in software and hardware and does not deliver the real goodness people would be expecting from Microsoft, some call it “Windows ME II
- One well backed up Desktop Linux distribution is making a lot of noise and got a lot of fans Latest Ubuntu delivers on the promise of Open Source but still retain the spirit of free software by promoting open standards and community sharing.
- Hardware vendors, provide more and more support to linux, Dell to Offer Ubuntu 7.04 and even those who were traditionally reluctant to help out ATI Committed To Fixing Its OSS Problems
- More and more big customers, mainly governments are officially stating or simply acting that will not rely anymore on a single vendor, we recently saw a thread of similar news, The Japanese government looks to go open source and Linux Still a Hit in China
So you get the point, to be conservative, there’s a chance that the Microsoft is loosing market share in several departments (servers, office, desktop, development). Less conservative people will see a clear path to inferno for the Redmond Giant.
I see only Fear Uncertainty and doubts, for both side, so it looks like the “free world’ as gained more power and is now cornering the “bad guys”. I see it the “patent reaction” from Microsoft to provide a legal ground for a last stand, a stand they they don’t want to take because there’s so much to loose.
Meanwhile don’t loose your sleep, other episodes will come, surely…
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[...] it) they would have remark that Microsoft is not in a strong position, but in a very weak one, see Microsoft Vs Free Software : Fear, Uncertainty and Doubts, just that, nothing more, they would have thought to reduce the size of the move, but then again if you read only the same [...]
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