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Microsoft's Ballmer Warns Asia of Linux Lawsuits (Microsoft pulls a SCO in Asia)
Reuters ^ | 11/18/2004 | Reuters

Posted on 11/18/2004 8:48:26 AM PST by Prime Choice

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chief Operating Officer Steve Ballmer on Thursday warned Asian governments that they could face intellectual rights-infringement lawsuits for using rival open-source operating platforms such as Linux.

Linux is open-code software that is freely available on the Internet and easily modified by users.

Its growing popularity with companies and governments around the world, and particularly in Asia, is a threat to the global dominance of Microsoft's proprietary Windows platform.

Ballmer, speaking in Singapore at Microsoft's Asian Government Leaders Forum, said that Linux violated more than 228 patents. He did not provide any detail on the alleged violations, which the Linux community disputes.

"Someday, for all countries that are entering the WTO (World Trade Organization), somebody will come and look for money owing to the rights for that intellectual property," he added.

Linux users got a scare earlier this year when software developer SCO Group Inc. sued a company for using Linux, which SCO claimed contains software code that it owns.

SCO is also embroiled in a lawsuit against IBM, claiming that the computer giant illegally built SCO's software code into Linux.

Singapore's Ministry of Defense last month switched 20,000 personal computers to run on open-source software instead of the Microsoft operating platform.

Other governments in the region are also looking to develop open-source software. China, Japan and South Korea this year agreed to jointly develop open-source software running on Microsoft's rival Linux operating platform.

The Chinese government, in particular, sees its reliance on Microsoft as a potential threat. Conspiracy buffs believe certain patches in the Windows code might give U.S. authorities the power to access Chinese networks and disable them, possibly during a war over Taiwan.

Ballmer said the security fears some governments had about using Microsoft software were overblown.

"We think our software is far more secure than open-source software. It is more secure because we stand behind it, we fixed it, because we built it. Nobody ever knows who built open-source software," he added.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: anticompetitive; ballmer; convictedmonopoly; gates; getamac; internetexploiter; lowqualitycrap; lyingliars; microsoft; monopoly; sco
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To: Knitebane
I've been running Linux exclusively on desktops and laptops for nearly 4 years.

LMFAO! "Using it" is a subjective term; particularly when you can't even get wireless drivers to work with it. It's useless on laptops.
61 posted on 11/19/2004 4:36:33 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: Prime Choice

They just don't seen to like free markets and capitalism.


62 posted on 11/19/2004 4:37:20 PM PST by KoRn
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To: monkeyshine
You're kidding right? I run XP, it crashes regularly because of conflicts of some kind or another.

Try using quality hardware and drivers. That's the primary source of problems.
63 posted on 11/19/2004 4:37:31 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: ShadowAce
LOL!! And you know that--how?

Coupling. Quality just isn't in your nature.
64 posted on 11/19/2004 4:39:10 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: Bush2000
Does Ballmer still call you by that pet name?

What was that again?

Monica?

65 posted on 11/19/2004 4:39:57 PM PST by Knitebane
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To: Bush2000
Odd, the built-in 802.11g card in this Toshiba Tecra M2 works just fine with Debian. Just booted it up and it worked.

And the PCMCIA Netgear card in my Dell Latitude works just fine too.

Once again, you spew FUD and you have no idea what you are talking about.

66 posted on 11/19/2004 4:41:46 PM PST by Knitebane
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To: Bush2000; monkeyshine
Try using quality hardware and drivers. That's the primary source of problems.

How lame it is to blame the hardware. Absolutely lame.

Q: How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None. They just declare darkness the "new standard" and charge $300 for it.

67 posted on 11/19/2004 4:42:59 PM PST by Prime Choice (STFU ACLU.)
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To: Knitebane; Bush2000
Does Ballmer still call you by that pet name? What was that again? Monica?


68 posted on 11/19/2004 4:43:54 PM PST by Prime Choice (STFU ACLU.)
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To: Prime Choice
How lame it is to blame the hardware. Absolutely lame.

I'm not blaming the hardware. I'm blaming cheap hardware and drivers. You'd be amazed at the crap that people put in their machines.
69 posted on 11/19/2004 4:45:17 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: Knitebane
He's talking about his standard Redmond talking points, not reality.

You got that right. Bush2000 and Golden Eagle were always whoring for Microsoft every chance they got. It was sad to watch, but kinda funny.

Brass Buzzard...er...Golden Eagle seems to have vanished, though. Ain't seen hide nor hair of him since August. (And it took me this long to miss his bullcrap.)

70 posted on 11/19/2004 4:45:58 PM PST by Prime Choice (STFU ACLU.)
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To: Bush2000

The crappiest of which all comes from Microsoft


71 posted on 11/19/2004 4:48:47 PM PST by Knitebane
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To: Knitebane
Odd, the built-in 802.11g card in this Toshiba Tecra M2 works just fine with Debian. Just booted it up and it worked.

Linux hasn't worked with 5 of the wireless cards that I've tried -- and, in fact, crashes in several cases with the supplied driver. Cisco Aironet, Orinoco, Linksys, Intel Pro/Wireless, Lucent WaveLAN. Considering that the vendor "workaround" is to recompile the drivers, edit configuration files, and basically waste about 3 or 4 days in endless nonsense, I'm not going to waste any more time on it. You won't admit it (you're a zealot, after all) but Linux Wireless just ain't there yet.
72 posted on 11/19/2004 4:55:18 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: Prime Choice
You got that right. Bush2000 and Golden Eagle were always whoring for Microsoft every chance they got. It was sad to watch, but kinda funny.

As opposed to you guys taking it between the cheeks for Red Hat and Linus...
73 posted on 11/19/2004 4:56:59 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: Knitebane
The crappiest of which all comes from Microsoft

Said Medieval Wedding Boy.
74 posted on 11/19/2004 4:57:20 PM PST by Bush2000
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To: Bush2000
As opposed to you guys taking it between the cheeks for Red Hat and Linus...

You're so cute when you're being petty and bitter.

And FYI, I don't use Red Hat. Not that I expect you to have the brain thrust to understand that.

75 posted on 11/19/2004 4:59:34 PM PST by Prime Choice (STFU ACLU.)
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To: Bush2000
Ballmer never said any of this.

Oh? You have a transcript? What did he say?

76 posted on 11/19/2004 5:04:21 PM PST by TechJunkYard
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To: Bush2000
It's not my fault, nor is it the fault of Linux, if you have a built-in bias against Linux which colors your ability to pop in a friggin CD, boot up, and use wireless.

Or perhaps it's that third-party crap you've been harping about, eh?

Nope, that can't be it, since the Netgear card in my Dell has an Orinoco chipset. The Cisco card my cube neighbor has works fine too. So does the Lucent card, Linksys and even the Intel Centrino built-in wireless chipset. All without recompiling.

I and every person at the local LUG uses 802.11 at every meeting. There are generally 30-50 people in the room, with varying types of wireless, built-in, PCMCIA and PCI cards, and I've not heard of a single instance where a recent version of a mainstream Linux distro wouldn't operate simply by opening a GUI app, typing in the ESSID and encryption keys and clicking OK.

We have beginners that have never used Linux come in. We give them a Knoppix CD and they are browsing using the wireless AP in under a minute.

So I have to conclude that it's not Linux, it's not new users, it's not the hardware...

It's just you.

77 posted on 11/19/2004 5:06:21 PM PST by Knitebane
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To: Bush2000
.. particularly when you can't even get wireless drivers to work with it. It's useless on laptops.

Works fine on my laptops (RH 7.3, 9), no problems with my Orinoco WiFi cards.

"Try using quality hardware and drivers. That's the primary source of problems."

78 posted on 11/19/2004 5:08:29 PM PST by TechJunkYard
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To: Bush2000
As I've already stated in an earlier post, I don't use RedHat. Learn to read something other than Microsoft marketing slicks.

And as for Linus...I've never met the man or taken money from him and besides, weren't you on the warpath with GE claiming that Linus didn't write Linux anyway?

79 posted on 11/19/2004 5:09:32 PM PST by Knitebane
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To: Bush2000
Oh, that hurts so much.

Perhaps when you make enough money to throw away tens of thousands of dollars on a themed wedding for your wife you won't be quite so bitter.

But then you work with a product whose growth days are behind it rather than an expanding, vibrant market.

80 posted on 11/19/2004 5:15:41 PM PST by Knitebane
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