"One of the things my team has been working to enable has been the ability for .NET developers to download and browse the source code of the .NET Framework libraries, and to easily enable debugging support in them. Today I'm excited to announce that we'll be providing this with the .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 release later this year. We'll begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, ADO.NET, XML, and WPF. We'll then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ). The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License."
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Member since:2005-08-11
Member since:2005-11-02
Member since:2006-01-02
It's probably true... Microsoft does have a lot of patents, and Linux implements a large amount of functionality. It's just that Microsoft doesn't have to show anyone information about this except those from whom it is accepting licensing fees. They don't want to sue customers and they don't want to sue end-users, so you won't see much of this except when they do a deal. The rest will be done quietly in confidential letters to big enterprise customers (the kind who might have a chance of getting Linux "for free" due to their ability to have a large in-house IT staff instead of paying RHAT for support). It is these people for whom the cost of linux must be made non-zero for Microsoft to compete there.
Think of it from Steve Ballmer's perspective (hard as that may be)... His company gets sued all the time for IP violations. Some are legitimate (the DEC case and the Apple case come to mind), but others are complete junk (cf. Eolas, Alcatel-Lucent). The industry (players like Sun, Novell, RedHat, and IBM) can't have it both ways: either IP laws apply to everyone or they apply to no one. Open Source does not magically exempt industry players from their obligation under patent law. This was never about individual developers or the independent OSS market... this has always been about big name vendors selling linux to big name customers.
Member since:2006-12-28
You are right, but then again you, I and MS knows that they don't have to be believed by the majority. All they need is to plant the seeds of doubt in the mind of one pointy heired manager for them to gain a customer.
Seeming as how they are trying their best to scare of customers as it is (you know, all that WGA and DRM crap), they gotta do something! Right? ;-)
Member since:
2005-07-06
“Actually, they don't really have "ever [sic] right to claim somebody stole from it" unless they have some amount of legitimate proof... Otherwise it's known as libel/slander/defamation.”
You did hear Microsoft claiming Linux violates 235 of their patents, right? It’s quite clear they have no problem with libellous statements.