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City of Munich Freezes Its Linux Migration

Posted by timothy on from the patently-something dept.

Jan0815 writes "Yesterday I received disturbing news from the CTO of Munich, Wilhelm Hoegner. As previously mentioned, there is a rising concern that software patents could stifle development of open source worldwide. FFII has complete coverage of what is going on in Europe." (FFII stands for Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure.) Reader jmt(tm) writes "The call for bids was supposed to be published in late July, but the Munich Green Party had pointed out about 50 possible patent conflicts which the city wants to evaluate before moving on."

5 of 523 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Make a mental note: greens scary by nagora · · Score: 1, Troll
    Are the greens complete idiots?

    Yes.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  2. Re:...EU software patents? by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 0, Troll
    Easy, I come up with some great idea based in software. My patent allows me the opportunity to make money off of that idea. I can focus on my next idea since I don't have to worry about promoting my last idea to pay the rent. My patent allows me to inovate.

    He asked for an example, and you basically reiterated what he wanted an example of. Your hopythetical example is what's supposed to happen, in reality, it doesn't.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  3. Re:...EU software patents? by rd_syringe · · Score: 0, Troll

    Personally, I never saw the big deal regarding Munich. Most of the reports indicated that yes, they switched to Linux, but they ended up running Windows in VMWare on most of those machines anyway, which was rather humorous. But I suppose it is a good first step.

  4. Re:...EU software patents? by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 1, Troll
    I don't have to ask myself that. It isn't what patents are about.

    No, that's what they're supposed to be about. Patents are supposed to cover implementations of ideas that are novel and non-obvious, not ideas wholesale.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  5. Someone should look into the Green parties funding by Man_Holmes · · Score: 0, Troll

    I've studied the history of the Green's in Germany as well as the rest of Europe.

    Their views on a variety of issues are pretty darned predictable. To this conservative they are almost always goofy, but predictably goofy.

    This time their objections are totally out of character. I don't know if Germany has the transparency of political donations that exists in the US.

    I want to know if donations from Redmond can be the reason for the Green's sudden interest in possible patent violations. Didn't Steve Ballmer go ballistic when they lost in Munich?

    The Green's are believers in the old axim, "the ends justify the means". I have no problem believing they could justify taking Microsoft's money and putting it to "good use" for their cause.

    What I want to know is their any way this can be checked?

    Man Holmes