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How dumb does Microsoft think we are?
May 17, 2007

You can't make this stuff up. Top Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley asked, "What kinds of tools/processes did Microsoft use to determine which open-source code allegedly infringes on Microsoft's patents?" Their answer: "No further details are available at this time."

So, Microsoft asks businesses and developers to not only take it on faith that Linux and open-source software violate its patents, it won't even give us a hint as to how they found out! Amazing. Simply amazing.

A great deal of coverage of the Microsoft patent attack on Linux and open source has also focused on the fact that Microsoft has begun releasing "details" on its patent claims. It has?

"I have here in my hand a list of 205 patents that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Linux Party..." Whoops, I'm mixing up "Tail Gunner Joe" McCarthy with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Like the Senator and his ever-changing number of Communists in the State Department, Microsoft makes no concrete claims. No patents are named. No specific violations are alleged.

And, now, thanks to Mary Jo, we know they aren't even going to tell us how they came up with their number of patent violations. My guess is they started from the discredited claims derived from the 2004 Open Source Risk Management study, took some of Bill Gates's 20-sided dice, threw them in the air, subtracted the sum, and -- ta-da! -- ended up with a specific number of patent violations.

Just how dumb does Microsoft think we are, anyway?

Or, considering that they're following SCO's failed path in FUDing Linux and open source, perhaps we should ask, "How dumb is Microsoft?"


-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols



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