Comments on: Rather than innovate, Microsoft may litigate against open source

By: Alfred Thompson

Alfred Thompson — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:09:14 +0000

Which on going litigation are you refereing to? That’s what I would need to convince me Microsoft is more interested in litigation than innovation.

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:39:17 +0000

I would agree that Microsoft is continuing to attempt to innovate in other areas, but with respect to the challenge posted by FOSS I’m observing that they appear to be favoring litigation over innovation.

I briefly saw part of a video on surface computing and hadn’t checked out pop fly at all, so thanks for that link. Pop Fly looks cool and innovative, but it is a web-based service.

Point well taken, Microsoft IS continuing to innovate. As a corporate strategy to address open source software and the viable threat posed by Linux, however, I think my observation still stands that in the FOSS context Microsoft is opting to litigate rather than innovate.

To conclude that Microsoft is innovating in response to FOSS, what would we need to see? I’m not honestly sure. An operating system that is lighter weight, more secure, faster, more flexible, graphically impressive, and inter-operable than either Linux or Mac OS X would qualify in my view, I suppose. I don’t think what I’ve heard and seen about Vista meets any of those criteria for “innovative” on the operating system side of things.

Thanks for the comment and challenge.

By: Alfred Thompson

Alfred Thompson — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:05:55 +0000

So the biggest problem I have with your post is the suggestion in the title that Microsoft is not interested in innovating. Given the recent announcements of things like PopFly (www.popfly.ms) and Microsoft Surface (www.microsoft.com/surface) there is clearly a lot of interest around innovation at Microsoft. I’m not in a position to know more about the patent issues then what I read in the media but it sure seems like if taking FOSS to court was any sort of goal it would have been done years ago.

By: Steve Hargadon

Steve Hargadon — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:26:26 +0000

It’s worth reading the following article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1729908,00.asp. The author of the study that Microsoft is using for their patent claims says that the number of potential violations is a story, all right, but because it is so low, not so high. All software has potential patent violations, apparently.

I’ve collected a list of Free and Open Source Software programs at http://www.k12opensource.com, in wiki form. I’ve also interviewed Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, and many others about the use of Free and Open Source software in k-12 education. You can find those interviews at http://edtechlive.wikispaces.com.

Cheers.

By: Jill Elfering

Jill Elfering — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:20:28 +0000

Why is it that Microsoft in its own fear turns to alienate its customers once again? Why don’t they take it one more step and write some “innovative” code into Vista that prevents the use of open source and free software – that should take care of those customers who are still on the fence. I was a PC person for my whole career before last year… how quickly things have changed. Get thee to an Apple store!

By: alQpr » Blog Archive » Wesley Freyer on Microsoft software patent implications

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:09:45 +0000

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By: Manny

Manny — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:35:39 +0000

US Patent Law needs revision alright. It should be revised to the point that software cannot be patented at all! Many other countries do not allow software patents at all, although they allow software to be copyrighted. The Philippines is one such enlightened country (benighted as it is in other areas).

Until the oxymoron of software patents is eliminated, we should fight to erase the fear Microsoft’s ridiculous claims may generate. We should use FOSS, encourage other to use it, and talk about it often and openly.

Microsoft is itself one of the world’s biggest software patent and copyright violators. We should stand up against this hypocrisy by publicly condemning it and avoid using their flawed software.

Use FOSS. It’s the right thing to do!