{"id":218,"date":"2007-05-15T01:17:56","date_gmt":"2007-05-15T00:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/?p=218"},"modified":"2007-05-15T01:17:56","modified_gmt":"2007-05-15T00:17:56","slug":"microsoft-vs-open-source-only-one-loser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/218-microsoft-vs-open-source-only-one-loser.html","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft vs Open Source: only one loser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft, of course. Fortune reports that Microsoft will seek to extract royalties from users of open-source software<\/a>. That would be monumental folly. Here’s why.<\/p>\n

First, the company already has an image problem. It’s the “Evil Empire”, the vendor we love to hate. Litigating against free software would be appalling PR.<\/p>\n

Second, let’s consider who would lose out if Microsoft succeeded in making widely used open source operating systems or applications illegal. Clearly, it would be the users of that software. But these users are in many cases also Microsoft’s customers. Windows on the desktop, Linux and Apache on the server, for example. Anyone who uses the internet uses open source software. If Microsoft litigates against open source, it will be litigating against its own customers.<\/p>\n

Third, Microsoft won’t succeed. I don’t find it difficult to believe that:<\/p>\n

\n

…FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

as Fortune reports. But what if big patent holders like IBM decide to trawl their files looking for ways in which Windows or Office might infringe a patent or two? I’d be astonished if they came back empty-handed. This is not a game that Microsoft can win.<\/p>\n

Fourth, the free and open source software movement is good for all of us. It’s lowered prices and fostered innovation. That’s a problem for a company that decides to attack it, because everyone will want it to fail.<\/p>\n

Fifth, Microsoft has a dismal record in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Sixth, major legal confrontations are a huge distraction. They drain productivity. They divert energy and attention away from what the company is good at.<\/p>\n

If Fortune is to be believed, Microsoft has been listening too much to its lawyers, and not enough to its customers.<\/p>\n

Microsoft can thrive alongside open source. The way to do so is to create great software like Silverlight. Not by embarking on unwinnable legal contests.<\/p>\n

Despite the above, I can understand (though not approve) that Microsoft may wish to mutter about its patents now and again, to spread a little FUD and dissuade customers from a switch to Linux. This may be no more than that. Otherwise, it is making a costly mistake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Technorati tags: microsoft<\/a>, foss<\/a>, linux<\/a>, fortune<\/a>, ibm<\/a>, patents<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft, of course. Fortune reports that Microsoft will seek to extract royalties from users of open-source software. That would be monumental folly. Here’s why. First, the company already has an image problem. It’s the “Evil Empire”, the vendor we love to hate. Litigating against free software would be appalling PR. Second, let’s consider who would … Continue reading Microsoft vs Open Source: only one loser<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software","category-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}