Balmer says Linux uses Microsoft 'property'

[Bruce Dawson]

Ben Scott wrote:
>  Steve Ballmer, Chief Inquisitor for the Evil Empire, has publicly
> stated that the reason for the Novell deal was that Linux "'uses our
> intellectual property' and Microsoft wanted to 'get the appropriate
> economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.'"
> 
> (From Slashdot,
> http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/17/1324248&mode=nocomment)
> 
>  This pretty much confirms the most popular theory behind the deal.
> It's extortion.
> 
>  It's a fair bet that we can expect to see Microsoft aggressively
> pursing legal action against commercial organizations with a large
> interest in Linux.  That means not just Linux-as-primary-product
> companies like Red Hat, but also resellers/integrators (Dell, HP,
> IBM), and large Linux users (e.g., US government).
> 
>  I'd say the SCO lawsuits were just the beta version of this.

I think a great campaign would be to show how Microsoft benefits from
Open Source and especially from the GPL.

It would sorta make all their bellyaching about Linux and the GPL moot.

--Bruce