[NTLUG:Discuss] Microsoft takes on the free world

[terry]

On 5/14/07, Dustin Reyes <crusader at linuxgames.com> wrote:
> I think it's more FUD and Microsoft is unwilling to try initiating
> full-blown patent war with the rest of the industry - the downsides
> appear to vastly outweigh the upsides for them, but I'm not a Microsoft
> shareholder or anything, so my pov is probably biased.
>
> It just strikes me as more bluster like Ballmer has spewed in the past.

I think it IS more FUD.
Since their puppet company SCO fizzled out and didn't do the job,
they've decided to just do it on their own, or, more importantly,
since the FUD from the SCO suit has peaked and fallen and died away,
they go on to the next level, a big 'ol suit of their own.

I don't know for sure but I think it will be a futile effort on their
part and they may know it too ...but just can't help using it anyway,
as yet another FUD campaign.  It may have been an idea they kicked
around - said no to at first, and then reconsidered due to the
potential for helping protect market share.

Maybe they hope that heads of IT departments will see articles like
these in various news media and think it'd be safer to use [or stick
with] Microsoft stuff rather than let their staff implement Linux
machines [as servers or desktops] or to avoid using any more than they
already have and / or maybe even do away with what they have now in
order to avoid issues and problems with Microsoft in the future.
After all, Microsoft IS the biggest bully on the block as far as
software goes, and EVERYBODY uses Microsoft products, (or at least the
vast majority anyway).  And the ones that are totally Linux users,
well, you can imagine for  yourself what impact it has on them, we can
suppose it's quite a bit different but would be something to consider
or worry about.

Microsoft may feel like most of the IT department heads are all "fence
riders" anyway, and this may just cause the majority, (or at least a
great deal of them), to jump off on the side of Microsoft.

They know it's a case that will stay in the courts for a number for
years, and therefore the FUD campaign will last for a number of years
as well. And by then, they will think of something else to squash
competitors.

It will never end, they have been implementing FUD campaigns in lots
of different ways every chance they've gotten for years, I don't see
them stopping now. But I really don't think our courts should have to
deal with all this. I don't think the courts should be used to help
Microsoft keep it's market share. <IMO>
-- 
Just in case [some of] you did not care to read all the way to the end
of the article, here are the last two lines:

"If push comes to shove, would Microsoft sue its customers for
royalties, the way the record industry has?

"That's not a bridge we've crossed," says CEO Ballmer, "and not a
bridge I want to cross today on the phone with you.""