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Ballmer on Linux

Posted by michael on from the microsoft-veterans-for-truth dept.

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."

10 of 472 comments (clear)

  1. Balmer: Research it yourselves. by Allen+Zadr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I like that last line of the article.
    "I just think people should go out and research this for themselves".

    Good idea, coming from a company that regularly commissions independant researchers to prove their point of the day.

    My assessment (not that you asked)?...
    Well, my research showed that patent infringement issues in Linux will more than likely get the same treatment as GIF files. If something does come up that really is an infringement, it'll stink for a few years, and then it will fizzle away as developers agree that there's a better solution than the patented one anyway.

    Then again, I've already got my company running on Linux servers, so perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part. *shrugs*.

    --
    Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
    1. Re:Balmer: Research it yourselves. by jubei · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not everything that Microsoft does is bad, but saying that Microsoft will backup customers in a patent case, while disclaiming responsiblility in the EULA is a bit shady.

  2. FUD? by FriedTurkey · · Score: 5, Insightful


    "I'm not trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt," Ballmer said

    Fear - Ballmer argued that companies should be wary of the lack of indemnity from lawsuits, such as the suit filed by The SCO Group Inc. against DaimlerChrysler AG, IBM, Novell Inc. and others over parts of the Linux operating system that SCO claims infringe on elements of the Unix operating system that it owns.

    Uncertainty - "In the Linux world, nobody stands behind patent claims," he said, noting that Microsoft could be forced to swallow a $550 million judgement if it loses its ongoing case with Eolas Technologies Inc., but that its customers would be protected.

    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.

    1. Re:FUD? by cHALiTO · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He's right, linux would be attacked just as frequently as windows.

      The interesting question would be if it'd also be 0wned just as much.

      --
      "Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad." -- Terry Pratchett
  3. software patents by Saeger · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "'In the Windows proprietary world, almost everybody stands behind intentionally vague, overly-broad, software patent claims,' warned Linux Torvalds, saying that there's much profit to be made by legally enforcing the artificial scarcity of very basic ideas.

    --

    --
    Power to the Peaceful
  4. The press don't read what's said, really. by Skiron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "If you have two popular operating systems, both will get attacked -- whatever is popular is going to be attacked," he said.

    Huh? Apache httpd gets attacked even though it has the market share of on-line web browsers... fortunately the attacks are looking for M$ IIS holes...

  5. I know... by gillbates · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Noting the prevalent use of pen and paper by audience members, 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

    Perhaps it was because no reporter was willing to bet their career on a laptop running Windows XP?

    Ironically, 20 years from now, these reporters will still be able to read their handwritten notes, but Microsoft will have long abandoned the audio and video codecs used to record the speech today...

    And that's assuming that the recording media is still playable. How many people can read 5 1/4" floppies any more?

    In the Linux world, nobody stands behind patent claims," he said, noting that Microsoft could be forced to swallow a $550 million judgement if it loses its ongoing case with Eolas Technologies Inc., but that its customers would be protected.

    This is an abject legal falsehood; a patent ownder can sue the users of the patent if they so desire. They might choose instead to sue Microsoft, but there is no legal indemnification from a patent lawsuit - Microsoft's EULA explicitly denies liability in this regard. And considering that Microsoft's customers have already been sued over patents (Timeline, anyone?), I don't see how he can even believe this truthfully. And to make matters worse, Microsoft has sued its own customers.

    If anything, using Microsoft instead of open source software imposes an even greater risk of patent liability on the users.

    --
    The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
    1. Re:I know... by maximilln · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Perhaps it was because no reporter was willing to bet their career on a laptop running Windows XP?

      I chuckled at the same thing but figured it was because no one wanted to risk being dragged out of the room by the FBI for reproducing copyrighted material with a proper license agreement signed by Ballmer, the entire MS legal department, and Bill Gates' dog to boot.

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      +++ATHZ 99:5:80
  6. Re:Balmer doesn't let us research it ourselves! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    With closed source, it's more likely the vendor will have to stop providing the software. Also, in the open source case, there's a better likelyhood that people have scoured the source code looking for infringing patents.

    Looked at that way, Linux is probably the very safest Operating System out there from a patent point of view, because undoubtably Baystar/SCO and friends would have searched for any such patents critical to Linux and tried to acquire them.

    I challange Balmer to hire someone to go through the Windows source code searchcing for IP violations with the same dilligence SCO has used looking for ways to own Linux.

  7. He's wrong. by schon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's right, linux would be attacked just as frequently as windows.

    One word: APACHE

    Which gets attacked more, Apache or IIS. Which has more market share?