Microsoft wanted to sue Linux guys
Yesterday Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, accused Linux of Patent Infringement in an interview with Fortune Magazine.
Wow !!!
There are many who are speculating why MS has suddenly got berserk.
Groklaw however has other fascinating counter-points about why MS's strategy to spread FUD(Fear, Uncertainity & Doubt) will fail.
With Open Source enthusiasts (myself included) blogging against MS all over the world, the author of Linux Patent Study justifies that Steve Ballmer got it wrong.
This finally led to MS releasing a statement saying that there will be no suing.
Has this damaged MS's publicity ? Does Steve Ballmer sound like MS's very own George Bush ? Are the Open Source & Linux enthusiasts now wary of patent issues or are they just confident with yet another victory feather to add to their Fedora ?
MS is fearing more competition in upcoming days.
MS lived on the platform of monopoly.
It has created entire suite of packages which cannot live without each other. Thus creating problem for all those who want to go away from windows.
Its partnership with Novell did not bring in much as they thought. Instead open source community boycott Novell itself.
Third version of GPL is being modified to address joint collaborations such as MS-Novell, which MS finding difficult to grasp. Which resulted into their top officials talking about patent infringement. They do not know that it will further unite open source community and will backfire.
As far as patent infringement is concerned, everyone copies from everyone else in software industry.
But if we have a look around same happens in auto industry as well.
Since users are familiar with certain routine, everyone else has to follow those routines and design their solutions around it.
If we all are forced to innovate from scratch, all new systems will be distinct from previous systems and will require huge learning curve making impossible to use new systems.