[Coco] OT: Vista and MS patent application, Linux

[Mannequin*]

Gene Heskett wrote:

...

>>> If MS gets a US patent, that could 
>>> be a problem. Even if it's not a full patent, but just grants
>>> exclusivity to some portions or ideas about a modular system, MS
>>> will viciously protect it. They don't have to be right, or to win.
>>> They just have ot have enough of a "foot in the door" to have a
>>> viable suspicion to claim infringement to get a court order to
>>> "cease and desist" then take a small company to court. That will be
>>> enough. MS pockets are deep enough to drag a case out long enough to
>>> bankrupt the competition, or prevent anyone from even trying to
>>> compete for fear of being dragged through court. That's a typical
>>> big business practice. There are law firms who have purchased older
>>> patents simply to go after infringers that the orignal holder
>>> couldn't afford to take to court. We'll have to wait and see what
>>> happens here...
> 
> Waiting and seeing will end up costing you money as well as your faith, do 
> it now. Install one of the more widely distributed flavors on linux, and 
> never look back.

Yeah, I totally agree with Gene here... But for more selfish reasons. 
*wink wink* I'd love to see a version of Portal-9 -or- Rainbow IDE for 
Linux. Open source would be nice as well, but I know you have a two-fold 
reason for creating these IDEs: the community, and money for those 
hosting bills. The last reason being enough to keep it closed source, I 
guess. Although, I'm pretty sure a donation button would help keep 
things going. I say this only because I've seen people around here pay 
out for your projects when you've asked for help, Roger.

...

> With all the older machines that have not been upgraded to FC6, 
> that means there are upwards of 10 million copies of linux in use that 
> came from the redhat machines.  Heck, there are probably, in a server 
> closet someplace, a couple of RH5.1 installs laboring along and more than 
> likely forgotten about.

Ah, I loved playing around with RH5.x. 'Twas one of my first Linux 
installs... It being before GNOME came in to 'part dominance' of the 
Linux world. My first install was Debian with kernel 0.9x. But after 
hours of working with my brother on the thing, it was evident that it 
hated my hardware with a passion. I had to wait to upgrade to friendlier 
hardware. :)

> One such server at Berkeley couldn't be located 
> for years, but was finally found during a remodel project that knocked 
> out a wall, it had been sealed in by a previous remodel 6 years back up 
> the log!

...

Ran like a charm still? I could see it. It certainly beats Winders users 
saying how great it is to only restart once every few weeks... I used to 
have a server (running Debian Woody, I think) for a modem connection and 
restarted it very rarely. Before it burned the motherboard out (I didn't 
give it good ventilation), I'm pretty sure it had an uptime of at least 
6 months. That is /nothing/ for a Linux machine. :)

-M.