235 Reasons To Use Solaris
As if last week's JavaOne conference and talk of Project Indiana weren't enough,
Fortune Magazine today brings us 235 new reasons to use Solaris. Fortune's Roger Parloff
takes an in-depth view at Microsoft's claims that free software like Linux violates 235 of its patents. I guess your reaction to this article might take one of several perspectives:
You might look to Novell for your Linux needs, given their
previously announced collaboration with Microsoft. Far from the lesser of two evils, that deal seems destined to bring users the greatest common denominator of two evils
You could continue using Linux just to spite Microsoft and hope that Microsoft will only try to sue big name Linux users or distributors, unless of course you are one of the latter. Do note, however, that many people who might consider themselves
individual users of Linux have found themselves targets of potential lawsuits in other realms of intellectual property. Do the initials RIAA ring a bell?
You could decide to use an OS with indemnification, like Solaris.
Fortune's Parloff talks about Microsoft's patent wars as a cold war. For those of you who wonder why Sun's indemnification in Solaris has a different legal basis that the Microsoft/Novell agreement, I strongly encourage you to read this Groklaw article, and the cozy sounding Limited Patent Covenant and Stand-Still Agreement Dated April 2004. I am so glad that my predecessors took the time to come to that agreement with Microsoft in 2004. It sure makes my job a lot easier today.
Has to be something going for this place...
Posted by Ceri Davies on May 14, 2007 at 12:31 PM PDT #
Posted by William R. Walling on May 15, 2007 at 04:49 PM PDT #
Posted by Rafael on May 17, 2007 at 06:01 PM PDT #