Microsoft is trying to make Linux illegal again

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leejosepho
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19 Sep 2010, 12:23 am

jec6613 wrote:
I think what they're really after is some of the old Netware stuff.

Does that mean some of the old Netware floppies I have laying aound here might again be worth something?!


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pakled
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26 Sep 2010, 9:26 pm

IF MS got Server 2008 (or whatever the latest flavor is...;), plus Netware, plus Unix and Linux, that would be (as mentioned previously), a complete monopoly (oh, there's a few others out there,but...;)
I've seen Netware used as recently as 2008, so it might still be out there. And what about Word Perfect?(if it still exists?...;)


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JohnnyCarcinogen
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15 Oct 2010, 2:56 pm

LordoftheMonkeys wrote:
JohnnyCarcinogen wrote:
Micro$oft won't be able to kill Linux. After all, Google has failed to do so as of right now.


:huh: Google isn't trying to kill Linux. Google has been a major contributer to the growth of Linux, most notably by introducing Android. Now that Android is becoming more popular, when someone starts talking about how much Linux sucks because it's hard to use and it can't play games, I can just pick up their Sprint phone and say "You know, this phone runs on Linux. You use Linux every day." I'm hoping someday I'll have the opportunity to do that.


I meant Google has failed to try and kill Microsoft - sorry, that thought makes little sense. :?


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Alethes
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15 Oct 2010, 4:51 pm

wut



JohnnyCarcinogen
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17 Nov 2010, 2:21 pm

Let me try that again...Microsoft tried to kill Google...oh forget it - I can't get this right. :roll:


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voss749
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18 Nov 2010, 9:41 am

Microsoft is a big giant crocodile, but the crocodile will let the birds pick its teeth and only attack targets of oppurtunity such as big companies using its FAT patents and things Microsoft can easily get license revenue from and making big scary noises

Oracle on the other hand is a stealthy predator. Theyve bought Sun, getting control of Java and Openoffice, if they bought Novell they could use the unix patents
against Redhat.



Fuzzy
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18 Nov 2010, 5:53 pm

voss749 wrote:
Microsoft is a big giant crocodile, but the crocodile will let the birds pick its teeth and only attack targets of oppurtunity such as big companies using its FAT patents and things Microsoft can easily get license revenue from and making big scary noises

Oracle on the other hand is a stealthy predator. Theyve bought Sun, getting control of Java and Openoffice, if they bought Novell they could use the unix patents
against Redhat.


Oracles timing might suck. People are starting to despise java with a passion, canonical for instance seems to almost be edging away from it. As for open office, they have strong competitor coming up behind them, such as libreoffice and google docs is omnipresent too.


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Orwell
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18 Nov 2010, 6:09 pm

Fuzzy wrote:
voss749 wrote:
Microsoft is a big giant crocodile, but the crocodile will let the birds pick its teeth and only attack targets of oppurtunity such as big companies using its FAT patents and things Microsoft can easily get license revenue from and making big scary noises

Oracle on the other hand is a stealthy predator. Theyve bought Sun, getting control of Java and Openoffice, if they bought Novell they could use the unix patents
against Redhat.


Oracles timing might suck. People are starting to despise java with a passion, canonical for instance seems to almost be edging away from it. As for open office, they have strong competitor coming up behind them, such as libreoffice and google docs is omnipresent too.

Java looks like it's going to stick around, unfortunately. OOo is dead; the open-source community doesn't trust Oracle and almost all the key devs have jumped ship to work on the replacement in LibreOffice which already has the support of almost every major Linux vendor. Incidentally, LibreOffice is already better than OOo because they've integrated the Go-OO patches (mainly performance enhancements and better MS format import) into the main distribution.

Even if Oracle bought Novell, I doubt they could do anything against Red Hat with those patents.


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CloudWalker
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22 Nov 2010, 5:26 pm

Finally the verdict is out:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20023535-264.html

So Novell is sold to Attachmate, with 882 patents going to M$. There's no mention of VMware, so it looks like Attachmate get suse too and will continue to favor Hyper-V.



Titangeek
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23 Nov 2010, 3:58 pm

found this, thoght it might aply to this thread

Quote:
We don't know for absolute sure that somewhere in the $2.2 billion acquisition of Novell by Attachmate and the “concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation, for $450 million in cash” that those unidentified IP holding were, in fact, Novell's ownership of UNIX.

[ Also on ITworld: Novell is dead and Microsoft has eaten its heart | Microsoft purchasing 882 Novell patents | Microsoft's hand in Novell deal bodes ill for Linux ]

True, a sale of UNIX to Microsoft is the sort of thing that conjures up the unlikeliest of outcomes--the kind of headlines that only too recently were atop April Fools' Day stories.

And yes, it is troublesome that Microsoft, which leads the CPTN investment group, has so far declined to specify just what IP was part of the $450 million side deal. But not too troublesome--after all, that kind of uncertainty only works in Microsoft's favor for now.

That fact is, that while many in the Linux community are wondering if UNIX is now owned by Microsoft, we don't know if that's what has happened, and even if it was, it doesn't necessarily mean The End of All Things Penguin.

I have two points, somewhat unrelated, as to why I am not highly concerned yet. First, it's not evident to me that Attachmate/Novell would sell off UNIX IP rights for $450 million to anyone. I would think that UNIX would be worth a lot more, particularly with Oracle's investment in Solaris, and HP in HP-UX, IBM in AIX, and so on...

With no offense meant for the SUSE or NetWare sides of the business, but I think it's a reasonable assertion that UNIX is long-term the most valuable piece of Novell's property. That Attachmate would up and sell it first chance they get seems rather short-sighted. It's possible Attachmate needed the sale to raise the extra cash to complete the acquistion of Novell, but without UNIX, they are left with yet-another-Linux company that has yet to go successfully head-to-head with its closest rival, Red Hat.

So while I don't know what IP got sold to CPTN, I am a little skeptical it was the UNIX IP.

If I'm wrong, and it was indeed the UNIX IP that was sold, then all sorts of scary outcomes can be imagined.

The nightmare scenario is that CPTN (with Microsoft at the helm) starts trying to shut down all of the commercial Linux distributors based on some "infringed" patents or copyright. They would leave Novell alone, of course, because a special licensing agreement would have been part of the $450 million deal announced today. Red Hat, Canonical, and all the other commercial vendors would be forced to pay licensing fees which would ultimately slash their already thin revenues, unless they passed that cost to the users--thus negating the big price advantage Linux has over Microsoft products.

CPTN will even be able to knock on Oracle, IBM, and HP's collective door and start asking for licensing fees for their UNIX flavors.

That is very scary stuff, and it would be something to worry about, except for one teeny, tiny thing. A little detail that all the doomsayers seem to have forgotten.

What's the key fact people seem to be forgetting?

It's this: to date, no one has proved Linux infringes on UNIX IP.

That's right. No matter how hard people have tried, no legal action has ever said that Linux had legitimate infringement issues with UNIX.

And oh, how they've tried. You might remember a little company called The SCO Group? They tried to make that assertion, only to find out that whoops, they didn't actually own UNIX rights to begin with.

For this nightmare scenario to come true, CPTN would have to get all of these other companies to go along with the unproved idea that there is indeed some legal hold UNIX IP has over Linux. Thus far, only one Linux company has rolled over on that idea, which was--surprise, surprise--Novell when they signed up for Microsoft's patent pledge a few years ago.

If CPTN has UNIX--and that's a big if--they would be nuts not to think there wouldn't be massive legal resistance to any sort of licensing controls placed on Linux. This would be for all the marbles, too, so you can bet every Linux (and UNIX) vendor with a commercial interest in this software would fight such claims in a legal battle that would make the SCO Group vs. everybody cases look like preschool playground shoving matches.

This is why, for now, we need to wait and see what's what with the Novell acquistion. I, for one, am more worried about the staff and community members I know there and what their futures will be moving forward. openSUSE and SUSE Linux are strong distros that bring a lot to the community, so here's hoping they emerge from all of this unscathed and untainted.



here is the link http://www.itworld.com/open-source/1284 ... n-not-nigh


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Fuzzy
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24 Nov 2010, 2:17 am

point: unix is worth zero until you actually sell it.

So the point that they wouldnt up and sell is erroneous.


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Titangeek
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26 Nov 2010, 6:55 pm

good news :D

Quote:
Attachmate to retain Novell Unix copyrights
Settling a rampage of rumors, Novell clarifies that Attachmate, not Microsoft, will own Unix copyright

Novell's copyrights for the Unix operating system will remain under Attachmate's control as part of the companies' pending merger, a Novell spokesman said Wednesday.

The confirmation, which came in a terse message posted to Novell's website, seems to rule out questions of whether Unix assets are part of some 882 patents being sold to a Microsoft-led consortium, CPTN Holdings, as part of the deal.

"Novell will continue to own Novell's UNIX copyrights following completion of the merger as a subsidiary of Attachmate," the message stated.

On Monday, Novell announced that it agreed to be acquired by Attachmate. As part of the US$2.2 billion deal, Novell initially stated that it would sell unspecified intellectual property to a Microsoft-led holdings company.

This vague statement led many to wonder whether Microsoft somehow had acquired the Unix copyrights as part of the deal. In March, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah confirmed that Novell owned the copyrights around Unix, ending a seven-year battle between SCO and Novell over ownership rights.

Microsoft has also asserted that various bits of Microsoft intellectual property are embedded in Linux -- Linux is a version of the Unix operating system kernel -- though it has thus far failed to point out the offending code. Novell, however, signed a five-year agreement with Microsoft that would indemnify users of its Linux-based operating system, SUSE, from Microsoft legal action.


link http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/3 ... opyrights/


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Brianm
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06 Dec 2010, 4:29 am

I've never used Linux. All I've used is Windows. I've heard though that there aren't very many programs available for linux. Open Office isn't too bad, but it's still not as good as Microsoft Office. I've used both by the way. I've so many bad experiences with Open Source trying to get them to work. There's some open source that's good, but most of it isn't.



LordoftheMonkeys
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06 Dec 2010, 7:21 am

Brianm wrote:
I've heard though that there aren't very many programs available for linux.


Amarok
Apache
Audacity
Battle for Wesnoth
BEAST
Blender 3D
Bluefish
ClamAV
DOSBox
Drupal
Emacs
Empathy
Epiphany
Evolution
FileZilla
Firefox
GIMP
GNOME Office
GNUCash
Google Chrome
GParted
GTK-Record-My-Desktop
Inkscape
Joomla
Kino
KMyMoney
KOffice
KompoZer
Konqueror
Kontact
KTorrent
MonoDevelop
MySQL
MythTV
Nexuiz
OpenOffice.org
Opera
Pidgin
Planner
PostgreSQL
Quanta Plus
RhythmBox
Rosegarden
Scribus
Sound Juicer
Stellarium
Synaptic
Totem
Transmission
Vim
VirtualBox
VMWare
Wings3D
WireShark
WordPress
XChat

...to name just a few.

Don't pass judgement on something you know nothing about.


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LordoftheMonkeys
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06 Dec 2010, 8:50 am

Brianm wrote:
I've never used Linux. All I've used is Windows. I've heard though that there aren't very many programs available for linux. Open Office isn't too bad, but it's still not as good as Microsoft Office. I've used both by the way. I've so many bad experiences with Open Source trying to get them to work. There's some open source that's good, but most of it isn't.


Okay, I had to go somewhere almost immediately after reading this post, so I didn't have time to fully address it. But half the servers in the world (including WP) run on Linux. Linux powers about 90% of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers (only about 1% run Windows). Recently, the London Stock Exchange switched to Linux, and broke a speed record as a result. Most web servers use Apache, which is open-source. A number of them use the open-source MySQL database. The Android OS used in smart phones is open-source. Firefox and Chrome are open-source. Wikipedia uses the MediaWiki engine, which is open-source. WordPress, the most popular content management system for websites, is open-source. Open-source software is everywhere you look; it's not just a bunch of cheap crap only made and used by virgins who live in their parents' basements.


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06 Dec 2010, 9:10 am

Brianm wrote:
I've never used Linux. All I've used is Windows. I've heard though that there aren't very many programs available for linux. Open Office isn't too bad, but it's still not as good as Microsoft Office. I've used both by the way. I've so many bad experiences with Open Source trying to get them to work. There's some open source that's good, but most of it isn't.

My package manager indicates that I have 32196 programs available to install whenever I want them. There are even more that I can find online.

To expand on LotM's point: Linux/UNIX is really the main operating system of the world. Windows only exists on the desktop, and there only because it has a lot of market inertia behind it that has prevented desktop UNIX from taking over. Unix dominates the server market; almost all servers run Linux or some other version of Unix. Virtually all major supercomputers run Unix, because you need a Unix system to do any serious work and Unix is scalable enough to be able to take advantage of really powerful hardware. The smartphone market is also massively dominated by Unix—the iPhone runs a stripped-down version of OS X, which is derived from BSD Unix, and Android is based on Linux—because Unix is more resource-friendly than Windows NT.

Windows is a toy. It's good for gaming, but it's deficient in almost every other area.


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