[Señor Zorro]

SCO II?

I wonder what the odds are of Microsoft actually attempting to bring a lawsuit.

[pikachu]

Just the threat of such a lawsuit would sent a lot of upper management types I've worked for into a tizzy. It's really fun to hear the non-technical folks proclaim Micro$oft's technical superiority and then watch them back pedal when you show them the cost of switching from Linux/BSD to their faveorite. ;-)

[KoRn]

Pay up! =)

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

The deal with SUSE Linux "is not exclusive," Ballmer added.

I'm sure that comes as a surprise to Novell.

[rit]

In Bishop's Microsoft Blog, he quotes Ballmer as saying "We've had an issue, a problem that we've had to confront, which is because of the way the GPL (General Public License) works, and because open-source Linux does not come from a company -- Linux comes from the community -- the fact that that product uses our patented intellectual property is a problem for our shareholders" (emphasis mine).

This kind of stuff will stay in the news until a Linux distributor takes the offense and tries for a prelimary summary judgement that their Linux distribution does not infringe any issued MS patents.

[antiRepublicrat]

I would really like to see what this "innovation" is. There's a list out there somewhere that tracks Microsoft innovations. A possible innovation is posted, people look for prior art, and the decision is made. Out of many, I believe only a few were declared innovative -- like Microsoft Bob and Clippy.

Our patent system is so hosed right now. They'll grant a software patent on anything, even stuff that's been in open source for years.

[Golden Eagle]

Ballmer is probably correct, since the executive director of the Public Patent Foundation and senior counsel to the Free Software Foundation already admitted back in 2004 that Linux appears to violate many software patents, he claimed 283 likely infringements in the Linux kernel alone.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/02/HNmspatentsthreat_1.html