MS Sinks to New Lows
Mood:
cheeky
Topic: News
I can't believe that M$ is now doing - this PROVES that they are scared of Linux. As you may have read in technology news, Asian countries are adopting Linux because it's free and free is always a lot cheaper than $100/license for Windows. However, M$ is now telling them that they shouldn't do this or they may be sued because Linux violates patents. This is not the first time such accusations have been thrown around, but from what I've read on the news Asian countries have nothing to worry about for two reasons.
1) There are no patent violations - Linus Torvalds, Linux creator, makes sure of this
BUT even if there are -
2) The power of opensource software is that it can be dynamically changed to remove all proprietary software. I mean, a fully-functional Linux that can do what Windows does is already a motley collection of programs from many different sources. So just replace product a with product b and everything's fine.
The article is reproduced below so that you can read it for yourself.
Microsoft warns Asian governments of Linux lawsuits
11/18/04 | 05:52 AM PST
Reuters
"Someday," CEO Steve Ballmer tells officials in a region intrigued by Linux, "somebody will come and look for money."
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Microsoft warned Asian governments on Thursday they could face patent lawsuits for using the Linux operating system instead of its Windows software.
The growing popularity of Linux--open-source software that is freely available on the Internet and easily modified by users--is a threat to the global dominance of Microsoft's Windows.
Linux violates more than 228 patents, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said at the company's Asian Government Leaders Forum in Singapore. He did not provide any details on the alleged violations, which the Linux community disputes.
"Someday, for all countries that are entering the WTO (World Trade Organization), somebody will come and look for money owing to the rights for that intellectual property," he added.
Software developer SCO Group, which claims that Linux is based on its Unix software, is suing companies including IBM.
Singapore's Ministry of Defense last month switched 20,000 personal computers to run on open-source software instead of Microsoft's operating system.
Other governments in the region are also looking to use more open-source software. China, Japan and South Korea this year agreed to jointly develop applications running on Linux.
The Chinese government, in particular, sees its reliance on Microsoft as a risk. Conspiracy buffs believe certain patches in the Windows code might give U.S. authorities the power to access Chinese networks and disable them, possibly during a war over Taiwan.
Ballmer said the security fears some governments had about using Microsoft software were overblown.
"We think our software is far more secure than open-source software. It is more secure because we stand behind it, we fixed it, because we built it. Nobody ever knows who built open-source software," he said.
Story Copyright ? 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Posted by Eric
at 10:47 AM EST