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

Boom!

[Sounder40]

The sabre-rattling is over. That boom you just heard was the first salvo being fired. Oh, "it was just a test", he'll say, but we know better. Linux, in all of it's different flavors, has left the hacker realm and poses a real threat.

Gandhi said: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi

I say "bring it on, bucko."