They should be careful waving those guns around. Might just shot themselves in the foot.

However, fortunately the IT business as a whole has not sunken to such low levels yet. Maybe some companies will still appreciate good business practices and ethics too instead of only money?

They will not go after the big guys first. They will go after the second tier distro vendors first. What that will do in US law is build a case portfolio to establish that they can win. By setting precedents they get the law in the US to change in their favor. This has become very typical of larger companies.

Customers of these companies will be scared by an impending legal battle, will back out and place their bets with Microsoft.

FUD is a double edged sword, and if ballmer doesn't quiet down he is going to have to swallow it.

to bashing Americans

reasons to hate another country or nationality

Many users of Microsoft SQL Server (I believe the 2000 version) were sued and lost on a patent infringement case.

The patent 'landscape', if you will, is a World War I style powderkeg.

I honestly don't see how that would happen. How is a user supposed to know what patents (if any) the software he's using infringes? And even if he does, why is it his problem? It should be the manufacturer's problem.

All they need to do is plant enough doubt in the minds of purchasing and tech managers to get more customers.

In the end, MS don't want a patent war as they would lose to the likes of IBM, OIN and Oracle. But as long as they don't take it to court, they don't need to prove that what they are saying is true.

The *BSDs had their "legal stoush" (fight) in the early '90s iirc. Everything was sorted out for them then. No loose ends for MS to pull on.

"Our confidence in our technology and protections for customers remains strong and has not wavered. Red Hat's Open Source Assurance protections focus on our clients' business continuity as well as indemnification against claims raised by any holder of software patents.

...

The reality is that the community development approach of free and open source code represents a healthy development paradigm, which, when viewed from the perspective of pending lawsuits related to intellectual property, is at least as safe as proprietary software. We are also aware of no patent lawsuit against Linux. Ever. Anywhere.

In addition, the Open Invention Network provides a patent safe harbor for the Linux environment. OIN, of which Red Hat was a founding member, also has an independent patent portfolio to help protect and maintain the pro-competitive effect of this open environment."