They are a big company and will most likely find a way out (probably by completely rewriting the code)
No they can't.
This isn't about code that MS has used. It's about the patents Microsoft has been threatening FOSS with.
Microsoft is distributing certificates entitling their customers to support and updates to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
When Microsoft customers who're entitled to updates on their SUSE Linux Enterprise Server installs get GPL3 updates, Microsoft will have distributed GPL3 code.
GPL3 includes patent defenses which prevent a distributor suing for patent infringement in the software they're distributing.
The result of this nice little combo is that Microsoft has accidentally indemnified all Linux users against their own patent threats.
Of course, since Microsoft has always said they only intend to use their patents defensively, they should have no problem with this interpretation of the situation, just accept it, get on with business, and stop the 235 patent FUD.
They're not doing that, instead they're dancing a two-step with Novell where Microsoft says they won't support their customers with GPL3 code. That would potentially leave them open to lawsuits for breach of contract, but Novell has stepped up to the plate and said they will support Microsoft customers with GPL3 updates, even if MS disavows it.
That's why PJ and others are so light-hearted about this. It's shown just how scanty the emperor's new suit is, and how complicit Novell is in it's ties to Microsoft's FUD.
I doubt that SuSE/Novel will stay non-GPLv3 for long
Yep, and that's the trap MS is trying to extricate itself from.
There are coupons for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support/updates that have already been issued to customers by Microsoft, and others MS has still to issue. Once Novell includes GPL3 code in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, those customers will receive the updates, and Microsoft will have distributed GPL3 code.
Microsoft is now reneging on the deal, and saying the customers who received the certificates will not be entitled to updates which include GPL3 code. This stipulation is obviously impossible to enforce.
Novell are saying they will support those customers anyway, thus allowing Microsoft to claim they are not distributing GPL3 code, even though those Microsoft customers are receiving GPL3 updates.
It's sly and tricky, and achieves next to nothing. Perfect MS fodder...
Whoever modded this "Funny" is wrong. It should be insightful.
My copy of Office XP won't activate on any of the computers I currently own (the hardware it was originally activated on is long-dead), and that's only 5 years old.
Yes, I understand there's a professor Tannenbaum at the Vrije University in the Netherlands who will discuss the Linux kernel in depth, if you ask him.
personally I think it should be approved; once the ECMA and ISO approval is done.
You're assuming OOXML will be accepted as an ISO standard. At this stage, with 16 of the 30 P-Countries offering contradictions, I wouldn't be counting it as a fait accompli.
Context is everything, and unfortunately, TFA doesn't provide a great deal, but most likely Brown was responding to statements like this from Steve Jobs;
"You don't want your phone to be an open platform," meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider's network, says Jobs. "You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up." Jobs' statement is FUD and needs to be challenged.
The role of the FSF is to promote freedom of software and computing platforms. Systems like the iPhone which are closed to their owners as a matter of policy rather than technology are the antithesis of what the FSF stands for.
The comment from Peter Brown calling the iPhone crippled is accurate in the context of the FSF's mandate, and is an appropriate stance for the FSF to adopt.
There's a better article here http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/iphone that summarises their attitude.
Technically, they CAN'T LEGALLY go after the PD or copyleft stations.
It doesn't matter what's legal and what's not. All that matters is that they can suppress any budding website with legal threats, delays and costs. There's a trail of damage a mile wide behind these scum Death By Lawyer: 10 Cool Sites We Miss
Well, transistors were "invented" 6 months after the "crash" at Roswell
Yeah, but point-contact diodes had been in use since the '20s. Adding a third wire isn't that big a conceptual jump, and the main reason it didn't happen sooner was that triodes were already doing the job.
They navigated the craft at least twenty four trillion miles THROUGH SPACE before crashing it in a unique and completely alien atmosphere with flight conditions they have never encountered before and that their craft obviously weren't designed to handle.
I doubt it was the flight conditions.
It's far more likely they navigated all those trillions of kilometres, then sent down what to them was a clearly unarmed, unarmored lander that demonstrated they were peaceful types hoping to say hello to the locals. When they got near the touchy military types at Roswell, their lander copped an unexpected sidewinder up the clacker.
The military then covered up the fact that they'd screwed humanity's chances of ever having friendly chats with some people who could solve the problem of interstellar space travel, cure cancer, save the whales and promote world peace.
Let's face it, if the US military had scored any advanced alien tech, they wouldn't have kept it secret. They'd have used against someone by now.
Just out of curiosity, do those countries spend less in an absolute sense or in a proportional sense?
The US spends about $6,000 per capita annually on healthcare, of which about $2,500 is contributed by the government. Australia spends about $2,200 per capita in total (both private and government). PPP-adjusted per capita spending in the median OECD country is only 44 percent of the U.S. level.
Cuba is often used as an example (by Moore, amongst others) because it spends less than $200 per capita to provide healthcare which is equivalent to that of the US. The data here http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/spend.php appears to be old, but it clearly illustrates the value-for-money aspect of international healthcare.
I agree that our health care system could be improved. However, Michael Moore's proposal - go to a single payer system - is not the answer. In Canada, one of the systems highlighted by his film...
The US has the most expensive per capita healthcare in the world, and Canada comes in second. The U.S. ranks only 37th in the world in quality health care - yet nationally America spends 82% more per person on health care than others. Canada also fails to fully benefit from the money spent, so I don't think either is a model for healthcare efficiency.
There are countries which perform better than the US while still spending less than the US government already spends. You'd be better looking at New Zealand, the UK and Australia to see what works.
The U.S. ranks last of six nations overall. As in the earlier editions, the U.S. ranks last on indicators of patient safety, efficiency, and equity. New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. continue to demonstrate superior performance, with Germany joining their ranks of top performers. The U.S. is first on preventive care, and second only to Germany on waiting times for specialist care and non-emergency surgical care, but weak on access to needed services and ability to obtain prompt attention from physicians. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publi cations_show.htm?doc_id=482678 The real tragedy from Australia's point of view, is that our government has an ideological commitment to drag our healthcare system down to the US's level, instead of bringing it up to match the top performers.
Better yet, if those cars were full of Vivoleum instead of gasoline Exxon could have sent their Brute Squad after the bastards that planted those bombs.
It's very important to stop terrorism.
Anyone filling their car with gasoline is a potential criminal and should expect to be arrested.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, then you can buy another XBox 360 when the first one gets the "Red Ring of Death". Then another when that one goes.
Then you can buy a Wii to play with while you're waiting for your XBoxes to be repaired.
No they can't.
This isn't about code that MS has used. It's about the patents Microsoft has been threatening FOSS with.
- Microsoft is distributing certificates entitling their customers to support and updates to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
- When Microsoft customers who're entitled to updates on their SUSE Linux Enterprise Server installs get GPL3 updates, Microsoft will have distributed GPL3 code.
- GPL3 includes patent defenses which prevent a distributor suing for patent infringement in the software they're distributing.
The result of this nice little combo is that Microsoft has accidentally indemnified all Linux users against their own patent threats.Of course, since Microsoft has always said they only intend to use their patents defensively, they should have no problem with this interpretation of the situation, just accept it, get on with business, and stop the 235 patent FUD.
They're not doing that, instead they're dancing a two-step with Novell where Microsoft says they won't support their customers with GPL3 code. That would potentially leave them open to lawsuits for breach of contract, but Novell has stepped up to the plate and said they will support Microsoft customers with GPL3 updates, even if MS disavows it.
That's why PJ and others are so light-hearted about this. It's shown just how scanty the emperor's new suit is, and how complicit Novell is in it's ties to Microsoft's FUD.
Yep, and that's the trap MS is trying to extricate itself from.
There are coupons for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support/updates that have already been issued to customers by Microsoft, and others MS has still to issue. Once Novell includes GPL3 code in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, those customers will receive the updates, and Microsoft will have distributed GPL3 code.
Microsoft is now reneging on the deal, and saying the customers who received the certificates will not be entitled to updates which include GPL3 code. This stipulation is obviously impossible to enforce.
Novell are saying they will support those customers anyway, thus allowing Microsoft to claim they are not distributing GPL3 code, even though those Microsoft customers are receiving GPL3 updates.
It's sly and tricky, and achieves next to nothing. Perfect MS fodder...
This fails because it would be overwhelmed by trolls, shills, astroturfers and spammers.
Large companies would camp on the site just to disrupt any patent which might affect their business.
Sarah Connor?
My copy of Office XP won't activate on any of the computers I currently own (the hardware it was originally activated on is long-dead), and that's only 5 years old.
Costs money, but if you need it...
http://www.file-convert.com/onl_pric.htm
That's not backwards compatibility, that's just emulation.
There is no DOS in Windows XP What is called the "command prompt" is not really DOSAren't you getting a bit mixed up?
Linux is supposed to be the complicated one. If you need to read all that just to use Windows safely, how do you expect a granny to cope?
Nah, it's a kuro5hin meme that's crossing over.8
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/6/28/7149/8096
Yes, I understand there's a professor Tannenbaum at the Vrije University in the Netherlands who will discuss the Linux kernel in depth, if you ask him.
This is the canonical list of cotradictions so far http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/articl e.php?story=20070117145745854. There are also links to Groklaw's analysis at the bottom of the list
OOXML is clearly not open. As the man says, its purpose is to describe Microsoft's Office product - bugs, rats and all.
You're assuming OOXML will be accepted as an ISO standard. At this stage, with 16 of the 30 P-Countries offering contradictions, I wouldn't be counting it as a fait accompli.
Yes, it is. Fortunately.
Context is everything, and unfortunately, TFA doesn't provide a great deal, but most likely Brown was responding to statements like this from Steve Jobs;
"You don't want your phone to be an open platform," meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider's network, says Jobs. "You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up." Jobs' statement is FUD and needs to be challenged.The role of the FSF is to promote freedom of software and computing platforms. Systems like the iPhone which are closed to their owners as a matter of policy rather than technology are the antithesis of what the FSF stands for.
The comment from Peter Brown calling the iPhone crippled is accurate in the context of the FSF's mandate, and is an appropriate stance for the FSF to adopt. There's a better article here http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/iphone that summarises their attitude.
OMG! I can't shoot him. He's beautiful!
It doesn't matter what's legal and what's not. All that matters is that they can suppress any budding website with legal threats, delays and costs. There's a trail of damage a mile wide behind these scum Death By Lawyer: 10 Cool Sites We Miss
We all have our hobbies...
Yeah, but point-contact diodes had been in use since the '20s. Adding a third wire isn't that big a conceptual jump, and the main reason it didn't happen sooner was that triodes were already doing the job.
They need to be in a liquid support medium to be able to manipulate their world effectively. That works until they develop metallurgy.
Add cephalopods and a forge to a liquid environment and the result is tasty, but hardly civilised.
Exactly. Those new Toyotas are far less reliable than my 1898 Winton.
I doubt it was the flight conditions.
It's far more likely they navigated all those trillions of kilometres, then sent down what to them was a clearly unarmed, unarmored lander that demonstrated they were peaceful types hoping to say hello to the locals. When they got near the touchy military types at Roswell, their lander copped an unexpected sidewinder up the clacker.
The military then covered up the fact that they'd screwed humanity's chances of ever having friendly chats with some people who could solve the problem of interstellar space travel, cure cancer, save the whales and promote world peace.
Let's face it, if the US military had scored any advanced alien tech, they wouldn't have kept it secret. They'd have used against someone by now.
The US spends about $6,000 per capita annually on healthcare, of which about $2,500 is contributed by the government. Australia spends about $2,200 per capita in total (both private and government). PPP-adjusted per capita spending in the median OECD country is only 44 percent of the U.S. level.
Cuba is often used as an example (by Moore, amongst others) because it spends less than $200 per capita to provide healthcare which is equivalent to that of the US. The data here http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/spend.php appears to be old, but it clearly illustrates the value-for-money aspect of international healthcare.
The US has the most expensive per capita healthcare in the world, and Canada comes in second. The U.S. ranks only 37th in the world in quality health care - yet nationally America spends 82% more per person on health care than others. Canada also fails to fully benefit from the money spent, so I don't think either is a model for healthcare efficiency.
There are countries which perform better than the US while still spending less than the US government already spends. You'd be better looking at New Zealand, the UK and Australia to see what works.
The U.S. ranks last of six nations overall. As in the earlier editions, the U.S. ranks last on indicators of patient safety, efficiency, and equity. New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. continue to demonstrate superior performance, with Germany joining their ranks of top performers. The U.S. is first on preventive care, and second only to Germany on waiting times for specialist care and non-emergency surgical care, but weak on access to needed services and ability to obtain prompt attention from physicians.http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publ
It's very important to stop terrorism.
Anyone filling their car with gasoline is a potential criminal and should expect to be arrested.