Microsoft answers IP questions posed in LXer open letter

The Waggener Edstrom

The Waggener Edstrom statement in that article on lxer was clear as mud.

I liked the translation here:

http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/24238/

And if this is true, it's the latest real feelings of Microsoft against Linux.

Microsoft must be flaming mad. They must be realizing that they're losing server room marketshare and are having to use tactics to increase their numbers artificially. Moreover, I would reason to bet that MS Consulting and Avanade are losing a good chunk of their business to Linux and Sun competitors.

And with wild things going on with consumers switching to Ubuntu in droves -- I mean, I recently saw an Ubuntu Forum post where a USA lawyer switched himself to Ubuntu and is wanting to switch the rest of his office to it, and that's one case out of many I'm seeing these days -- it's got to be making Microsoft fearful about their future. Sure, the Linux Desktop isn't a threat now, but it could be and I'm sure that's what Microsoft is fearing.

Then, to top it off, they come out with Vista, which is a lousy operating system. Ubuntu has almost all that it has and uses far less disk space, memory, and processor cycles to do the same thing. And, to boot, it's faster and more secure on Ubuntu. Oh, and I guess I should mention, it's FREE!!!

Microsoft should just give in like Sun did with Java. They should just go GPL. In fact, they might even save face if they would start a new OS roadmap that's based on a Linux kernel much like Apple did when they revised their whole roadmap and started again on a BSD Unix kernel.

I think as the consumer becomes more informed, Microsoft is like a boxed rat with nowhere to run.

And if that doesn't change them, then an antitrust lawsuit would.

Indeed. I imagine now some

Indeed. I imagine now some poster jumping in and saying something like "now now let's be real, with all that money and OEMs by the balls do you really think MS has a lot to worry about" etc.

Some would say we may be too optimist when talking about Microsoft as being in some sort of trouble because GNU/Linux is growing so fast and is just about to penetrate the desktop..

Well, I had a thought. I've been tending to this sort of optimism for quite some time already and those "realists" were chilling me down for it, and yet GNU/Linux *really did* continue to grow and become ever more impossible to ignore. Sounds like our optimism may be justified!

It would also seem like I was right to imply that 2006, and if not 2006 then 2007 may be that famous "year of GNU/Linux desktop". With this MS-Novell deal (which, besides everything else, shows just how important GNU/Linux has become to MS), continued trend of mass switching and a constantly growing mindshare of GNU/Linux, it looks like it. 2007 is either the year of Windows Vista or GNU/Linux. I hopefully bet on the latter!

And it's their own darn fault for shooting themselves in the foot. Like all those delays and strip ups of Vista weren't enough they let themselves be raped by the entertainment industry and fell for infecting their OS with DRM. Now we only have one more selling point of GNU/Linux as opposed to Vista, making the BadVista campaign so much more potentially succesful.

year of the GNU/Linux desktop

How many years has that been said about?

It will be when it happens.