MESSAGE
| DATE | 2009-07-20 |
| FROM | Ron Guerin
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Strange News this week
|
Ruben Safir wrote:
> July 20, 2009 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp.'s move to release
> three of its drivers to Linux, however technically modest it may
> be, could put pressure on other closed-source vendors to follow
> suit.
>
Let's hope.
> According to Greg Kroah-Hartman, a longtime Linux developer for
> Novell Inc. and the head of the Linux Driver Project, Linux today
> "supports hundreds of thousands of drivers."
[snip]
> "This shows that their customers have been asking to run Linux,"
> he said.
>
Bingo. It was a business decision, and knowing how they feel about both
FOSS and Linux, not one they made too lightly. I guess we're past the
"they ignore you" phase now. We already did the "they laugh at you".
Does this mean it's "they fight you" time?
> It also shows, in a posting to Slashdot by Sam Ramji, Microsoft's
> head of open-source strategy, that the company is not trying to
> undermine Linux or bolster its 2006 claim that Linux violated its
> patents.
>
Well, it hardly does anything of the sort, as I'm sure Mr. Ramji is well
aware. Drivers are always welcome, but they're program code, not
legally binding pledges of anything other than they won't sue over the
GPLed code in the drivers themselves.
- Ron
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