Leopards do change their spots, and why you should care

[catweazel]

Microsoft was, five years ago, openly hostile to open source. Today, Microsoft has come full circle and open-sourced its vast portfolio of 60,000 assertable patents. So, why should you care?

First up, Microsoft will no longer assert its patents against Linux; it has been particularly aggressive towards Android. Second, Linux is now very well protected against patent trolls. Third, setting the Windwoes charades and its closed-source nature aside, if you still believe that Microsoft is a danger to open source, perhaps it's time for you to rethink your world-view. With this move, Microsoft is now a fully-fledged open source organisation.

Microsoft opens up its vast patent portfolio to the Linux community
Microsoft open-sources its patent portfolio
What does Microsoft joining the Open Invention Network mean for you?

[lsemmens]

That is very interesting. it certainly looks to be a new direction for Redmond, I wonder whether the next generation of "M$ Windwoes" will have a Linux Kernel at heart.

[catweazel]

That is very interesting. it certainly looks to be a new direction for Redmond, I wonder whether the next generation of "M$ Windwoes" will have a Linux Kernel at heart.

I seriously doubt many people would consider that a possibility, but on the serious side, MS is moving away from the desktop and moving to Metal as a Service and managed operating systems. Since such a thing would have to be tightly integrated into their cloud offering, which is run 100% on Linux, it isn't too far fetched an idea, I think. Office is their cash-cow and that's gone into their Linux cloud. It's not too far off that the OS goes there too, but I won't be alive to see it

Edit: We'll need to see much faster internet connections across the entire planet before it can practically happen.

[xenopeek]

That's big news for OIN members and licensees. We're an OIN licensee.

But I've lived through too many EEE maneuvers of Microsoft. I'll believe it without reservations if they don't change their spots again in a few years.

Samsung hasn't joined OIN so Microsoft will likely continue to get money from Samsung for every Android device sold. HTC and LG are OIN licensees and Google and SONY are OIN members so this should, I think, mean they no longer have to pay Microsoft for the Android devices they sell. For other phone manufacturers I couldn't find them but likely none of them bring money in the bank for Microsoft like Samsung does.

[Faust]

Interesting topic to read , but so many acronyms !
( my ageing brain does not cope well with all the "incoming info " of the modern age ) .

Some I worked out ( slowly ) , but what is EEE ?

And yes , I could have googled it .....

[xenopeek]

From Wikipedia:

• "Embrace, extend, and extinguish", also known as "Embrace, extend, and exterminate", is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found was used internally by Microsoft to describe its strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to strongly disadvantage its competitors.

Some examples also found on the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_ ... h#Examples.

[Portreve]

The only two things I have to say about this are that, first, I really hope this would piss off Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and second, I don't and I never will trust Microsoft, no matter what it is that they do.

[michael louwe]

M$ saves a lot of development costs by using mostly Linux for her Azure Cloud business, but the Cloud business is being dominated by Linux-based Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

M$ is likely going the Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Fedora way = no need to spend US$billions yearly developing new versions of Windows 10, ie Windows 10 will be based on Linux and protected by the Windows Trademark instead of by patents = users will still have to pay M$ to use a Linux-based Win 10, either for a Windows license or through subscriptions.

M$ has just bought Github, the popular developer community for Linux.
....... For Win 10's twice-per-year upgrades, M$ has copied Linux Fedora's and Ubuntu's twice-per-year Point Releases. So, it won't be a surprise if M$ also copies the low-operating-cost business model of Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Fedora.

[absque fenestris]

The only two things I have to say about this are that, first, I really hope this would piss off Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and second, I don't and I never will trust Microsoft, no matter what it is that they do.

Absolutely your opinion - as a further company I would like to add the one with the air-dried bricks (just been really screwed again...)

[gm10]

M$ saves a lot of development costs by using mostly Linux for her Azure Cloud business, but the Cloud business is being dominated by Linux-based Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

Azure has twice the market share of Google cloud, second only to AWS, and from the latest numbers I've seen ahead of AWS in terms of revenue. And while of lot of Azure runs natively on Linux, also about half the install base is Linux, so this isn't about cost saving but about market share. Microsoft's strategy these days isn't anymore to force you to use their OS, they only want you to use their services, no matter what OS you want to use.

That's why the OIN step isn't all that unexpected - they want to secure their own business, too. Microsoft as a whole is the largest open-source contributor in the world these days, with much of their software and frameworks not only open-source but with native Linux code. With their new orientation as a service provider, a patent war with the risk of an injunction regarding the Linux part of their operations would be extremely costly for them.

[Portreve]

Absolutely your opinion - as a further company I would like to add the one with the air-dried bricks (just been really screwed again...)

I'm not going to sit here and say that Scribus, Inkscape, and GIMP are 100% drop-in replacements for InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop (respectively), but I have not even begun to scratch the surface of what they're capable of, and I've already accomplished a great deal. There's a ways for each of those programs to go, and there are others which we definitely need, and at that point the air-dried brick company can start to feel the same thing that M$ has. I don't think it can come soon enough.

I would really like to see Scribus in particular do three things:

1. Close the gap with InDesign's more creative capabilities
2. Start to implement QuarkXPress's feature set, because for many areas of production it leaves InDesign in the dust
3. Fix their d*** UI already. It's unintuitive and basically fugly.

[xenopeek]

The FSF's take on the news: https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-statement- ... on-network

[Portreve]

The FSF's take on the news: https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-statement- ... on-network

I stand with the FSF on this. I also agree with the implicit suggestion that Microsoft's full scope of intentions in this situation is unknown and should rightfully be regarded with a very healthy dose of skepticism.

To borrow from a much overused expression, “I hated Microsoft before it was cool.”

[catweazel]

I stand with the FSF on this. I also agree with the implicit suggestion that Microsoft's full scope of intentions in this situation is unknown and should rightfully be regarded with a very healthy dose of skepticism.

I agree.

[BG405]

I agree.

So do I. Looks llike the FSF is keeping a very close eye on things, so this is a good thing .. and also reveals some extent of their concerns.

[AZgl1800]

Edit: We'll need to see much faster internet connections across the entire planet before it can practically happen.

I second this, I am still on DSL which is twice as fast as 90% of the population around my home who are using a radio service to give them Public WiFi at "up to 5mpbs during a very quite time period at 3 a.m.

ADSL is only good for up to ~20,000 feet of copper wire from the switch center.... and the available speed at 20,000 feet is almost 1.5mbps, maybe.

the Public WiFi subscription services are only good out to around 5 miles....
after that, they have to go to ViaSat.