On Tue, 3 Aug 2010 07:07:10 pm Jonas Maebe wrote:
It's not really supporting in this case. Microsoft is of the opinion that a lot of open source software infringes on their software patents (which is definitely true
[...]
Unless you can point out the infringing software, and demonstrate what patents it infringes, that's just an supposition. It is not "definitely true" except by doing violence to the idea of "definitely".
So Microsoft is not really contributing to open source, but rather trying to get everyone who works on open source to pay them for infringing on their patents.
In what way does Microsoft writing out a cheque for thousands of dollars to give to developers who develop open sourced .Net software "trying to get everyone who works on open source to pay them for infringing on their patents"?
I mean, yes, I think Microsoft is devious too, but thinking that them funding developers to write OSS is a ploy to force them to pay patent fees is pure tinfoil helmet territory.
The simpler explanation is far more likely. Microsoft has reluctantly come to the conclusion that they can't easily destroy the FOSS community, that they have to co-exist with Linux in the same way that they co-exist with Apple (that is, occasional border skirmishes rather than open war), and they'd rather have people writing FOSS for Windows and .Net than for Linux.
Yes, they're threatening to wield the patent sword (and yet they haven't done so ... you have to wonder if their patents were so sound, why they haven't sued Red Hat out of existence yet?). They can do both at the same time. MS is a huge company, with many different departments with their own budgets to spend and their own managers making their own decisions. Not everything comes from the personal desk of Steve Ballmer.