[NCLUG] *hugs*, hi I hope that you're doing great!

[Chad Perrin]

On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 12:01:59AM -0600, DJ Eshelman wrote:
> 
> So, I'm curious - is anyone else just feeling really ticked at the latest M$
> plot to claim Linux infringes on patents?  Surely this doesn't have anything
> to do with the new announcements from Dell, HP and Lenovo about Ubuntu being
> shipped on laptops...  Like they weren't feeling truly threatened until they
> realized that new systems were being shipped without Windows (Linux for
> desktop has typically been put on older PCs, not new ones)?

Just so we're clear -- this isn't just about Linux, though Microsoft of
course always uses the word "Linux" as its stand-in for all of open
source software.  Microsoft, with these statements, is essentially
declaring war on all open source software developers and users.  That
means not only the Linux kernel, but any window managers that look or
act at all similarly to MS Windows, filesystems, office productivity
software, and non-Linux open source operating systems.  I'm sure that,
if Microsoft considers it any kind of threat, ReactOS is on its radar.

My personal concern is more for OSes like FreeBSD than for any Linux
distributions, but I understand that if Linux is in danger, so too is
FreeBSD.  As such, I'm sensitive to reports of threats to Linux, and not
just to the OS I'm actually using.  I just hope all the Linux users out
there can show the same concern for non-Linux open source OSes if and
when the need arises.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him
you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions
your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."