Ballmer Says Linux "Infringes Our Intellectual Property"

Stony Stevenson writes "In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property." From the ComputerWorld article: "In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux 'uses our intellectual property' and Microsoft wanted to 'get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.'" His exact wording is available at the Seattle Intelligencer, which has a transcript of the interview. Groklaw had an article up Wednesday giving some perspective on the Novell/Microsoft deal. Guess we'll have something to talk about in 2007, huh?

Comments

Luckiest guy ever poll

[Cauchy]

a) Ringo Starr (thank you John, Paul, and George)
b) Dr Phil (thank you Oprah)
c) Steve Balmer (thank you Bill and Steve)
d) All of the above

Re:Alright, own up

[GuidoW]

(as there isn't really a "Ride of the Nazgul" track on the soundtracks to any of the LotR soundtracks)

No, but there are several bands out there who have done some musical interpretations of Tolkien's novels (even long before the movies came out). There is at least one band who have produced a track with the name "Flight Of The Nazgul".

Re:Alright, own up

[cayenne8]

"No, but there are several bands out there who have done some musical interpretations of Tolkien's novels..."

My favorite is Zeppelin's Ramble On and a little about the ringwraiths in Battle of Evermore .