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Sun and Microsoft Settle Litigation
spurious cowherd writes "According to The Register Sun Microsystems & Microsoft have reached a settlement in their several lawsuits aainst each other. Sun gets $2B and both parties agree to share intellectual property." There's a press release to read as well.
Ha ha, very funny. April Fools...no wait, it's the second! Wow, imagine that!
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Seriously ... what's the point of having a place with Windows if there's no Sun out there to light things up? By the way ... Is it still April 1st in some timezone I'm not aware of?
I've never heard Mcnelly speak without bashing microsoft. ... Is it even possible?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
SCO and IBM settled their long standing dispute with IBM agreeing to pay SCO 3 billions and SCO accepting that Linux source code does not belong to them :-)
And Bill Gates and RMS met over a dinner and shared jokes about their college days.
"In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."
Shortly after agreeing to settle, Microsoft realized $2 Bil was a lot of money, and immediately approached the DOJ to have the settlement blocked.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
B is for billion, right, not just bucks? wow!
After all the rancor over the last few years the wording of the press release is so mechical...I wonder if you can see Scott McNealy's new borg implant blinking in the video coverage.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
$2,000,000,000 changes a person.
If the couch is worth $2B it somehow eases the pain.
"You my bitch now."
(I know I'm risking being a troll, but whatever)
First, the devil's advocate voice:
Microsoft produced their products with the strategy, speed, and skill of McDonalds. They built a product (let's start with DOS) that was accessible, simple, and usable by any idiot. They struck intelligible deals with massive companies to get their product out there, and out there it went! They built a business using typical strong and fierce business tactics.
Okay Microsoft, you win.
Thus, like a spoiled child, Microsoft decided to use its leverage to wield God-like powers in the computing world, the corporate business world, and every buzzword-labeled stage (e-business?) in between. For example, the price alone of their core OS jumped in multiples when going from DOS to Windows. The Windows concept isn't even Microsoft - Xerox came out with the first GUI interface!
By creating and patenting a standard, the toe-hold is impossible to break. This will make things practically impossible for other companies to have any sort of success.
Why? Because they can!
Is it a good thing that anti-trust suits are being filed? I'm curious if that's the only option for the rest of the computing world. It's like watching an election. Microsoft is a lot like the Republican party. All the Republicans boost and support their one icon-puppet into office, because they know that no matter who's in office, it's a Republican in office, and they all look and talk the same. That unity, no matter how evil and horrible, gets success. Meanwhile, the Democrats (and all the remaining 3rd parties) are scrambling about in free will, trying to agree on someone who is able to represent the common voice of the common people... unfortunately, the common voice is so diverse and spread apart, the concept of a "common voice" is obsolete.
Hopefully, one of these days, the dust will settle and we can all join hands and sing folk songs around a campfire.
"Would you rather be right, or happy?"
Oh, wait a minute, that was yesterday...
As part of the deal, Sun has also agreed to cripple Java by making Java applications really ugly and slow, and...
Oh, wait, never mind.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak