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Ballmer on Linux
theodp writes "'In the Linux world, nobody stands behind patent claims,' warned Steve Ballmer, saying that Microsoft customers would be protected from the $550 million Eolas patent infringement judgment. 'I'm not trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt,' said the CEO of the company who earlier cried wolf about breaking IE in the wake of the Eolas judgment, prompting the W3C to go to bat for the software giant."
There's a first time for everything.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Please get off, you're crushing me, you sweaty bastard!"
"Here at Microsoft, we spread duf(TM)."
(as tux shoots at his feet)
"In the next ten years, you're going to see more positive change than in the last ten," Ballmer said.
yea.. he will be out of a job..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
Funny, my girlfriend said the exact same thing!
:-)
(to me that is, not Ballmer. Actually she wasn't my girlfreind, she just lived across the street and never closed her curtains).
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Doubt - On the touchy issue of security, Ballmer also dismissed the notion that Linux is more secure than Windows, saying that Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if the open source operating system had as large a share of the operating system market as Windows.
Does this represent a plan for fixing the holes that still exist after SP 2? Say, give up market share to Linux so that Windows presents less of a target?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Ballmer said that cutting back on the promised features at least allowed the company to announce a release date for the product, which was a "major accomplishment."
I am just speechless. I better sit down.Veritas patesco per quaestio questio. Truth is revealed through questions.
Well, according to SCO, Linux doesn't exist. And the headline for this story is "Ballmer on Linux". So I gotta wonder if he's about to have one of those Wile E Coyote moments where he's standing on nothing and gravity decides to assert itself? ;-)
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Ballmer wondered aloud why the content of his speech was not being captured and translated automatically, while also being synchronized with real-time video and a copy of his Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
Because the speech was encoded using WMA Digital Rights Management, restricting the delegates from recording his words except via an audio stream licensed from Microsoft. Extracting audio "snippets" was prohibited by the DRM software, which meant that reporters on radio could either stream his entire speech or none of it.
A separate license was required to decode the real-time audio, with royalties paid by-the-minute (even modern-day-techno-savy journo's don't want to pay to broadcast Ballmer looking like a monkey) to the owners of the audio-streaming technology, which in this case happened to be Microsoft.
Finally, the PowerPoint presentation was similarly protected by traditional copyright law (its binary), the DMCA (its digital transmission), and - if it's been XML exported with the latest Office - probably patent law as well.
The ways of gods are mysteriously indistinguishable from chance.
So, do we start calling Ballmer, 'Duf-man' or what?
"Duf-man, not spreadin' FUD, ooh yeah!"
-r
Just because something is free does not mean you have to take it.
Eyewitnesses at the conference where Ballmer made this statement noted that he started running around the stage trying to rile up the crowd by shouting "Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers!"
"In the next ten years, you're going to see more positive change than in the last ten," Ballmer said.
I agree. I sincerely doubt that SCO will be around in ten years.
Hmm, I always thought that interoperability implied multiple platforms.
So... if I scratch off the "Tab" label and make it the "Selection-Relocator" button I can still use it without violating the patent, right? They're either patenting the use of a button to do the job or they're not patenting anything enforceable. It might spawn a side business of re-labelled Linux keycaps. And does the double click patent apply to my trackball or only to mice? And what if I press the button instead of click it?
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world. It's just a lie you've got to rise above. - John Mayer
That's a bit like slashdotters going "not to troll, but
Whatever, just don't dance again.