On Sat 09 Jul 2011 at 10:33:22 +1000, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > Microsoft now is not the same > as Microsoft of 1998, or even of 2005. Thanks in part to the > European Union (who did what the US Justice Department refused to do > and actually put MS over their knee and gave them a sound spanking) > and in part due to commercial realities (Microsoft's customers said > "Ballmer, we're using Linux and we want Windows to interoperate with > it, get over it"), MS has developed an uneasy and reluctant but > nevertheless genuine attitude that they have to Play Nice With > Others.
Ha ha. They show that so nicely by threatening Android phone makers with patents, and demanding money for every Android phone sold. Yes, the Android which is not from MICROS~1 and which contains not a line of MICROS~1 code. Today, it is said that MS earns more money from Android phones than from its own Windows phones. Source: groklaw.net and its newspicks; e.g. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/070611-microsoft-android.html http://www.geekwire.com/2011/microsoft-signs-android-patent-deal-with-military-contractor-general-dynamics (unfortunately there are no permanent links for Groklaws newspicks directly, i.e. the abstract and possible comment on it; I got the above from http://www.groklaw.net/newsitems.php?page=2 but by the time you read it it will have shifted down of course) > Consequently, we now have entire departments of MS that publicly > contribute to Open Source projects, the whole "Linux is a cancer" > thing has been toned down, and there's hardly even any more talk > about patent threats. Nonsense. See above references. Patent threats are on the rise. "The official announcement also contains a none-too-subtle message for the other Android device makers that Microsoft is negotiating with and/or taking to court over the issue." from the geekwire link. > On the other hand, do you know who I fear? Google and Apple. Between > the two of them, this could very well be the last generation where > general purpose computing devices are available massively to the > public, as opposed to specialist hobbyist machines. Between Google > putting everything on the cloud, and Apple locking down computers > and turning the operating system into a walled garden where you can > barely write a shell script without their permission, the future for > hacking is looking grim. I agree with that, though. Not necessarily with (only) Apple and Google but with any vendor who tries such things. > Steven -Olaf. -- ___ Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert -- There's no point being grown-up if you \X/ rhialto/at/xs4all.nl -- can't be childish sometimes. -The 4th Doctor _______________________________________________ Pan-users mailing list Pan-users@nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pan-users
