Microsoft's Ballmer Warns Asia of Linux Lawsuits
November 18, 2004 Leave a comment
Gotta love Steve.. I really think he does more to hurt Microsoft than he does to help sometimes (not that I mind). I wonder what MSFT employees think of him? From the article:
Ballmer, speaking in Singapore at Microsoft's Asian Government Leaders Forum, said that Linux violated more than 228 patents. He did not provide any detail on the alleged violations, which the Linux community disputes.
“Someday, for all countries that are entering the WTO (World Trade Organization), somebody will come and look for money owing to the rights for that intellectual property,” he added.
Has he forgotten that many Asian countries (some of which hate each other) are working together on a Linux distro? …and that countries outside the USA don't have to follow our laws? …and that the concept of IP to a communist country is quite odd?? …and that – we'll you get the idea. Also from the article:
“We think our software is far more secure than open-source software. It is more secure because we stand behind it, we fixed it, because we built it. Nobody ever knows who built open-source software,” he added.
Now that is interesting logic. You can evidentially throw the historical security record of an OS out the window, as long as the company that wrote it will “stand behind” it. Tell that to the 10's of thousands of Windows zombie machines spewing spam to everyone. Unreal!
DEVELOPERS – DEVELOPERS – DEVELOPERS ;)
–jeremy