Microsoft has recently asserted that Open Source Software violates 235 patents, and that Linux violates 42. While those claims are highly questionable since Microsoft won’t say which patents are violated, the real question is how many patents might Microsoft be violating? The sick thing is, nobody can really find out, since Microsoft won’t share its source code, but anyone can accuse Linux of any violation arising from its source since Linux is an open, honest operating system.

Worse yet, Microsoft is already inking agreements with some of the less altruistic Linux vendors, including Novell, which as part of its deal is protected from patent lawsuits.

I will admit that it seems unlikely that legal action could arise from these so called patent violations, but if it really is just a scare tactic, it’s a really dirty trick. Hinting at legal action to either scare businesses back towards Microsoft products or towards its partners that sell lawsuit-protected versions of Linux is highly unethical and really nasty. All this serves a purpose I suppose–if their gambit fails, they’ll have egg on their face. And regardless, this whole incident makes me feel much less guilty for bashing Microsoft. They deserve it in spades.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.