Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on May 23, 2003 05:57 AM
The problem is not the discussion - it's that everyone is leaping to conclusion without any hard evidence. You all want so badly for Microsoft to be the big, bad, evil entity that you in effect become judge, jury, and executioner, even if it's only in the virtual sense.
Microsoft has done a lot a crappy stuff in their time, and they've gotten burned as best as anyone can burn them for it at this time. But you guys see conspiracy in every move they make. If Bill passes gas, it's assumed to be a slight against Linux.
People - it's software, not your children. If it was your children, I'd be the first to say you have the right to be overprotective and paranoid, and I'd worry if you weren't. But software doesn't live or breathe or cogitate - it's electrical signals flowing through predefined pathways through a machine, and all the anthropomorphic personification you put on it will never change that immutable fact until we invent some new technology.
You can guess, ponder, discuss, bluster, or blow it out your rear end, but the ONLY existing fact is that Microsoft has apparently paid SCO (yes, I think the people at SCO are shitheels) to license some IP, and that's all there is. In absence of any other evidence, leaping to conclusion solves nothing. Remember that Microsoft does have some tools for Linux/Unix interoperability and that they probably did not write portions of that code, and therefore may need to license the parts they didn't write.
On a further note, considering how litigious SCO is right now (however suicidal it may be), it would behoove Microsoft to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. I really doubt they want to go through the hassle of getting sued, even if it's by an irrelevant pipsqueak.
For what it's worth, to my knowledge, Microsoft has actually been pretty good about IP issues - I can't personally think of anything beyond the Apple lawsuits of the 80's where they tried to go after anyone over IP issues. The balance of evidence points to Microsoft sticking to the business and marketing playing fields and using every play in the book. I could be wrong there, I will stipulate that right now.
But as far as I can tell, sometimes a spade IS just a gardening tool.
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Re:If you can't stand the heat ...
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 23, 2003 05:57 AMMicrosoft has done a lot a crappy stuff in their time, and they've gotten burned as best as anyone can burn them for it at this time. But you guys see conspiracy in every move they make. If Bill passes gas, it's assumed to be a slight against Linux.
People - it's software, not your children. If it was your children, I'd be the first to say you have the right to be overprotective and paranoid, and I'd worry if you weren't. But software doesn't live or breathe or cogitate - it's electrical signals flowing through predefined pathways through a machine, and all the anthropomorphic personification you put on it will never change that immutable fact until we invent some new technology.
You can guess, ponder, discuss, bluster, or blow it out your rear end, but the ONLY existing fact is that Microsoft has apparently paid SCO (yes, I think the people at SCO are shitheels) to license some IP, and that's all there is. In absence of any other evidence, leaping to conclusion solves nothing. Remember that Microsoft does have some tools for Linux/Unix interoperability and that they probably did not write portions of that code, and therefore may need to license the parts they didn't write.
On a further note, considering how litigious SCO is right now (however suicidal it may be), it would behoove Microsoft to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. I really doubt they want to go through the hassle of getting sued, even if it's by an irrelevant pipsqueak.
For what it's worth, to my knowledge, Microsoft has actually been pretty good about IP issues - I can't personally think of anything beyond the Apple lawsuits of the 80's where they tried to go after anyone over IP issues. The balance of evidence points to Microsoft sticking to the business and marketing playing fields and using every play in the book. I could be wrong there, I will stipulate that right now.
But as far as I can tell, sometimes a spade IS just a gardening tool.
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