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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT)
AMAT 240.80+4.6%Nov 5 3:59 PM EST

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To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (12239)11/30/2004 12:09:01 PM
From: Sun Tzu  Read Replies (1) of 25522
 
OT (Linux SW Patents)

Balmer was being highly deceptive in his comments and later tried to retract them. I read an interview with the project leader into the linux patent study. It may surprise you to know the study was funded by FSF (Free Software Foundation) itself to show how safe Linux is. The point of the study was to put a finite number at the potential patent violations. This number is at 284 and is very conservative compared to other major softwares. What Balmer failed to say is that MS products are in potential violations of far more patents than Linux. For example CP/M and Digital Research code have crept into Windows as have other designs from VMS and OS2. The key here is that these are potential disputes and NOT actual violations. To date, no court has ever ruled against Linux or SFS for that matter. Balmer made it sound as if Linux is a ticking bomb where in reality the damage is limited to only 284 issues that are identifiable in modular forms and in the event that any of them is ruled against can be replaced with alternatives.
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