How on earth an OS based on Unix which is nearly 50 years old( as I understand it patents last 20) isn't prior art is beyond me.

Even the patents for a Windowed system must be due to expire..

Will be interesting to see if the EU fair trade commission force M$ to name the patents-if/when this happens i bet 99% are null/void due to prior art.

As for "taking advantage of Microsoft innovation" thats a laugh since most of it turns up 2-5 years before Windows on Macs

This action is 100% pure FUD to make sure that open source solutions in the enterprise segment don't become too powerful and large to contain.

Microsoft's #1 fear in their OS and Office suite division is the fear of irrelevance.

Everyone's missing the point. For Microsoft, this is heads I win, tails you lose. If people keep using Microsoft products, Microsoft keeps raking in the dough. If people adopt Linux, Microsoft collects royalty payments and keeps raking in the dough (even more this time because it hasn't developed, marketed, produced, or supported anything).

It's also a new revenue stream because Microsoft says to its customer, "Hey, you're using our products and Linux. Guess what? Now you owe us more money for your Linux use, as well." Boom, new source of revenue from an existing scenario.

Am I the only one who thinks that there should be a statute of limitations for alleged patent infringement, especially for patents over a company's intellectual property?

I'm getting tired of companies pulling crap like this _years_ after their product has become a resounding success (!)
Are we _honestly_ supposed to believe that they were unfairly hurt by the competition somehow?

Microsoft needs to learn that there are more important things in this world than money, and give Linux a little breathing room.

It doesn't surprise me at all (the deal they made with Novell was a big clue that something like this was in the works), but it still annoys the heck out of me.

I had been toying with the idea of migrating my primary home desktop to Linux anyway. The priority of that project has now been bumped up. I am setting a goal for myself of making it happen over the next ~2 months.

This just incredible and all this is happening because Microsoft screwed up so badly with Vista.

It seems Microsoft will do anything it takes to push Vista down our throats. We bought a few PCs recently and had to wait a whole month to get an OEM version of XP Pro. If you want a retail version you have to wait even longer. Vista is of course available in all possible variants.

The reality: their claim is not baseless.
The truth: they are going to be wasting money by suing companies that implement linux solutions.

SCO was stupid, they claims were basically "linux stole code from SCO, we want monies from companies using linux". MS is taking a different tactic: we have patents on technology that linux infringes upon.

How about this for a quick scenario:
MS sues RedHat b/c they are a solution provider. MS identifies the email groupware and Windows file sharing implementation as infringing; RedHat would have to pull this tech from their solution OR license it from MS. Regardless of the actual source code involved, the patents are infringed upon.

This is indeed a very possible situation. The more commercial solution providers making money on these systems, the more they have a chance to collect royalties.

If you can't beat them, sue them.

I wonder if I can patent life and say everyones infringing on it?

The software industry won't be able to go anywhere if every new revolution in design is met with the iron chain of the old.

this sorta stuff really pisses me off, MS claiming someone else copied them? laughable, they are the kings of copying. In fact that's all they do, copy someone elses idea and rebrand it. Everything they do - OS, console, mp3 player... all copies of preexisting ideas.

Even if MS did come up with these ideas related to the desktop GUI or other apps (which they didn't come up with, they just patent anything they can get through the patent offices doors) I fail to see why it would be unfair to allow another person to code from scratch a program which can do similar behaviours (menus and a desktop environment with windows etc). If you write the code for an application without copying any source code, then why can't you make it do whatever you want? Patents are bs, they only exist so that those in powerful positions can maintain them by preventing competition.

It seems this move is designed to find new revenue streams for Microsoft because they've basically saturated the market.

It also seems like this is a very dangerous venue for Microsoft to explore since it's huge size is no competition for either the looming US Government, which might see this as extortion and abuse of monopoly, or a coordinated front of Linux adherents whose combined money and patent portfolio dwarf even Microsoft's.

Anger enough vendors like AT&T/SBC, IBM, Sun, etc., and Microsoft could find itself not only crushed by retaliatory patent infringement claims against it (which probably hold more water than Microsoft's), but also an FTC investigation initiated at the bequest of those in Microsoft's cross-hairs.

Im wonder how much of the code founded in Linux is used in by Microsoft without any complaints.

Now i got vista becouse i got an upgrade with my laptop. But if i didnt and read this i would not buy it. When the patentssystem and economic system are aged and no longer serve the consumers and the developement its up to the consumers to refuse this kind of abuse.

BTW, the company I work for is a large multi-national company who spends almost $200 million dollars a year on Microsoft products. Now multiply that out by the number of large companies that are Microsoft based. Does Microsoft really want to risk such income over petty, tenuous patent disputes?

I think Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. Ubuntu 7.04 is a stunning product, ready for primetime, and the #2 vendor has adopted it for desktops. Corporations are running various pieces of their IT infrastructure on Linux; some are running Linux on the desktop, too. How long before everything transitions over to Linux and cuts Microsoft out of the picture? Therefore, Microsoft wants to get a toe-hold in now, realizing that even if users and corporations transition over to Linux and away from Microsoft, they still have a stake in it and a source of revenue regardless.

No one seems to be mentioning that this could also bite MS in the ass. While there probably are numerous patent violations which MS could prove, I'd bet everything I have you'd also find numerous GPL and other license violations in MS's own code from programmers who've lifted stuff from the open source community. MS has been caught doing this in the past (the quicktime lawsuits from years ago being the one I remember best) and from what I've read the original windows networking stack was lifted from (BSD?). Seems to me they should be careful about opening Pandora's box here.

Notice that they do not specify which patents are in question, otherwise, the open source community would hurridly make sure that they are in compliance and therefore MS would have nothing to yell about.

Ewww.. I've never been a big Microsoft basher, I can admit there is things Windows just does better, even if it is solely the result of better support from hardware vendors and software developers. I can respect what Bill Gates has accomplished, but after Vista, and now this, I'm going to be running, not walking away from Windows.

Could it just be they are trying to scare companies away from Linux right after releasing their brand new OS?

"innovation"? MS? since when? Ballmer should shine his head more often at the bowling alley. How do you even begin to compare?

Sounds like Microsoft took a page from SCO.....

every action folks take around linux, i constantly tie back & wonder - how much does this have to do with Dell's adoption of linux?

Just MS using FUD to maintain their monopoly. I find it really ironic that politicians in this country love to talk about privatizing everything so that "competition" can take care of the market and encourage innovation -- while in the real world every corporation's fantasy is about is establishing and maintaining a monopoly.

well I notice they haven't signed an agreement with IBM. Are they going to try to fight Big Blue in the court room after they embarrassed SCO thoroughly in the courts?

Vista sucks? Linux getting more and more popular? (Try Ubuntu 7.04)

Guess we'll whip up a good old fashioned witch hunt! Pathetic.

I guess MS got tired of the peace. Wonder what losing this case will do for Vista adoption?

A famous quote from Gandhi has always made me smile -and proved right so far- when following Ms vs Linux: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

To be able to take patents on codes and programmingtechniques is ridiculous. That does not help developement, which is why patents where introduced in the first place.

Whoops, we don't own any corporate Linux distro houses. Make Linux illegal unless components are "licensed". Done.

Evil Bill Gates Simpsons episode anyone?

So what MS is saying is that all your base are belong to us?

If your a typical large (fortune 500 or multi billion dollar) company you have lots of moeny in both windows and *nix systems.
Lets say the IT department of one of these companies is negoitating with MS for a new vista and office licence, but also thinking about *nix/LAMP and open office. If MS then said to that company something like "BTW - since you have X machines with *nix and other FOSS you owe us Y dollars", what do you think the IT managers would do?