Microsoft wanting to patent/tax Open Source use?

[Tundro Walker]

Sorry to spam the forums, but I branched off from that dinner interview with Mark Shuttleworth to another article (http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2006/11/the_road_to_the.html) talking about Microsoft using their buy-out of Novell to try to leverage patents and/or taxation on Open Source. In other words, the author is concerned that Microsoft merely became Novell's benefactor (bailing them out of financial trouble), so the could do a long-term mingling of their software with open source software, enough so that they could perhaps legally claim some kind of patent on some of the open source software.

Personally, I thought Microsoft was buying out Novell to provide "their" version of overly controlled Linux...you know "Winux (http://www.mslinux.org/)" (PS: that site is meant as a joke). In other words...


"You want to use Linux? Sure, here...use Microsoft Linux! No, seriously, it's not Windows! It doesn't have the bugs or viruses or what not. Best of all, it's completely compatible with all your Windows work (.doc, .xls, etc), so migrating is easy! And, you have the comfort of knowing it's fully supported, unlike those OTHER, shoddy, open source, Linux versions.

Ok, that'll just be $300 licensing fee for the OS, and you'll have to activate it after installation, and we'll verify your key every few months to make sure you still own it, and $400 for MS Office Linux Edition, and this requires a faster computer to run on, because we've implemented all kinds of services you probably won't use, and..."But, from the sound of that article's author, they want to use their own version of Linux to leverage domination of the Open Source community.

Gee, I'm just full of George Orwellian, speculative alarmist news today, aren't I... What ever happened to the days of "I pay you a reasonable price for a product that works, you take full responsibility for it if it doesn't, and other than that, leave me the hell alone so I can use it how I please?"

History (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution) has (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II) shown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989) that any time a pendulum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_rebellion) swings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Riots) too far in one direction (http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/40481/40481.html), it'll come crashing back the opposite direction. Microsoft has a lot of financial and legal muscle to keep pushing that pendulum further and further towards complete corporate subjugation, but people can only tolerate so much. So, it'll be entertaining when they lose their grip.

On another note, anyone ever play ShadowRun or CyberPunk? Remember the term "mega corp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacorporation)"? Yeah...Microsoft... We're moving away from a world of countries, and more towards a world of mega corp's. I don't think corporations will ever replace governments, because governments give people a placebo feeling that they're still in control. But (especially here in the United States), corporate lobbyists sway government officials more than the people, so ultimately the governments are the tools of corporations rather than the people.

Ugh...

[billdotson]

I am not paying MS for anything open source. It is open source, it is NOT their code. They aren't going to show any code in Linux OSes that is their code because there isn't any. Thank goodness for that. Seriously nobody using Linux would ever pay a tax to MS because "it is an infringement on their intellectual property". Does anyone recall how MS got DOS? they bought it for $50000, they didn't code it themselves. MS can't bully every open source company and get away with it. The idea of a tax to use Linux is disgusting. If Linux actually was required to have a tax either nobody would pay it or they would all move to something else. MS disgusts me with thinking that everything is somehow their intellectual property. Their claims are ridiculous and equate to saying "Well your stuff is actually mine because it is written in the same language."

Just plain FUD, will never happen.

[Tundro Walker]

You know, way back when, I thought this article about Microsoft patenting one's and zero's (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29130) (a sarcastic, fictional article cheap-shotting them for being so domineering) was pretty hilarious. It's still pretty hilarious, but is starting to sound more like prophecy.

[billdotson]

you'd think this would get more replies... just kinda odd

[ssam]

this is why we have the open invention network (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/).

[kragen]

That "Microsoft Patents 1's and 0's" article reminded me of something I was thinking of a while ago:

Would there be any fesable advantages to programming in base 3 or base 4? I mean, it can't be that hard to create a machine that can easily detect voltages 0, 1/2 and 1 across a wire, (the signals 0, 1 and 2), but I wasn't sure that any benefits this offered would outset the extra cost / complexity of having hardware to detect that.

[Mega_slayer]

That "Microsoft Patents 1's and 0's" article reminded me of something I was thinking of a while ago:

Would there be any fesable advantages to programming in base 3 or base 4? I mean, it can't be that hard to create a machine that can easily detect voltages 0, 1/2 and 1 across a wire, (the signals 0, 1 and 2), but I wasn't sure that any benefits this offered would outset the extra cost / complexity of having hardware to detect that.

I'm not sure if this helps to answer your question, but research in quantum computing is developing a revolutionary computer structure:


A three-bit classical computer can store three digits in one of these eight patterns: 000 001 010 011 111 110 101 100

A three-qubit quantum computer can hold the same eight patterns all at once, making it eight times more powerful. A seven-qubit like the one at University of Waterloo, the largest so far, would have 128 possible combinations of 0s and 1s to work with simultaneously, giving it 128 times the capacity of a seven-bit classical computer. A 30-qubit quantum computer would be roughly three times as powerful as today’s fastest supercomputers, which can run at trillions of operations per second.

You can find the rest of the information on this page:


http://www.iqc.ca/institute/quantum_computing.php

Sorry that this may be a bit off topic... back to the original thread...

I also think that Microsoft is going to far, especially concerning their potential grasp on open source software. That is why we use it, because it is open and free (and it just works!). I'm under the impression that they wont be able to tax us... and that people would use other distributions rather than their distribution of Linux.

[allforcarrie]

it will happen eventuly.

[OffHand]

Fud

[kragen]

I'm not sure if this helps to answer your question, but research in quantum computing is developing a revolutionary computer structure:

Yeah, that's something different. I was talking about something more like this:

http://xyzzy.freeshell.org/trinary/

So I've answered my own question :P

[hello]

well...I am just hearing about micosofts plan...and am a little curious about how far in they are...I discarded ms windows and now fear that I am just useing a variation ...maby I should just stop useing electronic devices and buy a gun..now I fear the last word has me on a list somewhere so I hate it all the more...fear fear more, then pay to reduce fear with anti fear software, ...then what..is there actually a FREE OS that I can USE with out FEAR..what does FREE mean.. is open source OWNED by WHO..where am I..Is there any truth and truer or just lies and deciet..

.can any one suggest good reading on this subject

[justin whitaker]

If Microsoft has anything to say about purloined IP in Linux, perhaps they need to be reminded of their own tarnished legacy in this. MS-DOS, for example, was basically Q-DOS reverse engineered, with some information from IBM's CP/M project...and Gates had to convince IBM (read buyoff) to let him retain the rights to code that by all rights should have been IBMs, since Gates was working for them.

If there is some way for Microsoft to come after Linux as a whole, my guess is it won't be on a technical basis, say over NTFS/FAT32 file code in the kernel, but over something like WIMP (Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer) that they tried to patent after the fact.

I always thought chasing after Microsoft's look and feel was dumb....I bet that is where the attack will be.

[Compgeek701]

I myself don't really care what they do. I'm not too loyal to the Windows or the Ubuntu community anyways. I have a PC, a Mac and a Linux OS. Lol.

[hello]

At the moment most people are not so much loyal but simply do not know better..My recent switch to linux can from realizing that giving away my old computer was illegal...I refuse to give in to that. If I spent my hard earned dollars on it I shall do what I want to with it..I am not loyal to linux but am starting to awaken to the real need to do so..home computers are supposed to make life easier like a fridge for milk and a washer for cloth...if maytag said I could only wash silk in the machine and only I could use it and proceeded to connect it to a maytag spy shop to insure it, I would wash my clothe in a bucket and insure the bucket was not made by a company involved with them...people need to wake..and decide what the appliance is worth

[billdotson]

I cannot see this as anything other than FUD. They have no legitimate arguments, and even though they have tons of money if they actually did manage to make people pay a tax/royalty on Linux distributions either a) people would "suck it up" and do it or b) they would just make another open source OS to use widely. MS is just a big bully, and eventually one day someone like Google will be the "big brother" and beat MS up for us. What I find so interesting is that the US gov't doesn't try to do anything to stop their monopolistic business practices. MS probably pays gov't officials (vomit smiley). How can they prove that any of their code is used in Linux? Why would any developer want to use their code in the first place? This idea is not much better than them trying to sue all open source users. Are you going to make someone pay a tax on something that they made or someone else who did it for free (meaning the code is obviously not MS's). It would not happen. I doubt anyone would pay.

[Tundro Walker]

...My recent switch to linux can from realizing that giving away my old computer was illegal...

Not sure I follow that. How is giving away an old computer illegal?


if they actually did manage to make people pay a tax/royalty on Linux distributions either a) people would "suck it up" and do it or b) they would just make another open source OS to use widely.

So, to sum up...

1) Microsoft's a FUD bully (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37835)
2) We don't care because we use Ubuntu (http://opensourceroolz.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/xp-on-ubuntu-using-vm-ware-microsoft-doesnt-agree/)
3) ...but if they did do something like that, OS & software (http://sourceforge.net/index.php) is easy enough to crank out these days that somebody would make a replacement (http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html)
4) ...but there'd still be sheeple tossing MS money (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1958) because they're just used to it
5) ...and Quantum computers rock

[mech7]

My god the conspiracy theories never end do they :lolflag:

[hello]

It is certainly easiest to just not care at all..suse is mircosoft...SO...ubuntu is free and works as well...SO...hitler wants to take over the world...SO..ya I know..WHO CARES...

[Immolatus]

Microtrash would never produce an alternative for users only for themselves. By this I mean that their only intention here would be to insure revenue. I think micro%$@ will produce a derivative of Linux but not exactly a distro purely to cover their own *** in the Enterprise sector, as they stand to loose billions there.
I also think they know they only just hocked up a turd with this vista garbage (sure a shiny turd is shiny , but it's still a turd)

[Tundro Walker]

I just realized something...I violated Godwin's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law) by comparing Microsoft to Nazi's. I guess if I was arguing with myself, I would have lost.