Microsoft Threatening to Sue Asian Countries
In what can only be classified as a perfect public relations move, if your goal is to alienate your client base, Microsoft is threatening legal action to several Asian countries who have switched, or are considering switching, to Linux.
Claiming 228 patent violations, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is warning that users switching to Linux may be in line for legal action. The claimed violations come from a report last summer that showed 283 patent violations in various versions of Linux. To be fair, many of these alleged violations are from companies “friendly” to Linux.
Stuart Cohen, CEO of the Open Source Development Labs, claims confidence against these threatened legal actions. Red Hat, Novell, and Hewlett-Packard have some sort of legal protection from suits for their clients. This is in addition to the $10 million legal defense fund for Linux customers.
Microsoft claims that their software is more secure because “we stand behind it, because we fix it, because you actually know who builds it.” Sure, you know who built it; but there’s no way to know what’s in it. At least with open source, if a security risk pops up it’s a fairly easy fix without having to go through a big corporation.
To me, it sounds like Microsoft is a little worried about Linux stepping in on their turf; and are looking for any method to keep their monopoly intact.