November 15th, 2004
Microsoft and your tinfoil hat
Hypochondriacs get sick. They even die. Just because you’re paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you. (And if you are paranoid, or just extremely careful, here’s a great version of Linux for you.)
There’s a reason that open source fans treat every piece of news from Microsoft the way Kremlinologists during the Cold War would measure where leaders stood on the wall during the May Day parade. The price of software freedom is eternal vigilance.
Thus it’s great to have a ZDNet chronology of the SCO-Microsoft relationship and see where the smoke lies. It’s frightening to see Microsoft cross-licensing its entire patent porfolio, which includes claims on all basic Internet technologies, under rules which prohibit signatories from working on open source projects.
It’s good to know the paranoid aren’t completely crazy.
But should we be assuming the worst?
As the saying goes we report, you decide.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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