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ZDNet / Insight / Software
The warning sound of TomTom
Summary
commentary Microsoft's court case and trade commission claims against TomTom are perfect examples of how power, perverts process.
Topics
tomtom, microsoft ms-dos, linux, industry, collaboration, car
Events
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commentary If the patents at the heart of Microsoft's action against TomTom are the best the company can do, little wonder the company has declined to identify those at the heart of its Linux threats.
The TomTom claims cover such things as a multitasking computer on which you can run programs, in a car. A wireless Internet-connected computer, in a car. And how to create long file names in the MS-DOS filing system--a fix introduced in Windows 95 because MS-DOS is a direct descendent of 1974's vintage 8-bit CP/M operating system. A direct descendant? More a bastard child: MS-DOS helped itself freely to many of CP/M's design concepts, in some detail.
But those were the days when Bill Gates could say that software patents had the potential to put the industry at "a complete standstill" and with good reason. If the sort of protection Microsoft now claims for itself had been available to CP/M then, Microsoft would never have created its monopoly, nor amassed a fraction of its power.
Now it has, the rules have changed. Microsoft is perfectly happy, while proclaiming openness and interoperability, to find a company in dire financial straits and then threaten it with expensive legal action over what any self-respecting programmer would identify as a hackish kludge--something that advances the art of computer software not one bit.
Microsoft has taken an interesting path to the point where it now finds itself comfortable reducing the rest of the industry to that "complete standstill". When it first decided in 2003 that its FAT filing system should be licensed, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told us that revenue generation wasn't the idea: "Fundamentally, that's not why we are doing this. We are doing this to work better and promote better collaboration with the industry."
We can talk all day as to whether this is an attack on Linux (Microsoft denies this while repeatedly citing the OS in its claims), an attempt to frighten others into settling without going to court to test the patents, or a cynical move, driving TomTom into the ground to facilitate a purchase. Working better and promoting better collaboration, however, is not on the menu.
The patent system is not just broken, it is poisonous. It works by fear, using the civil courts as cudgels in the hands of bullies. In the process, it despoils its main purpose: what valid, proportionate claims Microsoft may have in the rest of its case against TomTom hardly matter.
Everything in this case is a perversion of how intellectual property should be used, commercialized and shared. We salute TomTom for standing firm, and urge the rest of the industry to find and stick to a fairer, more sensible way of dealing with shared IP.
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I am running Ubuntu and happy
Microsoft is a road block in software progress; we can only thank Germany for bringing suits against Microsoft for the unfair trade practices. With each law suit that Microsoft brings forward; we should use this to foster the idea to step away from Microsoft and endorse open source .It may also be a great idea or reason to go out and buy TOM TOM products.
I'm running Windows Vista and happy
OSS is a fallacy with: a. Support tax (hidden support costs) b. Fragmentation c. Fanatical user base d. Patent issues e. Copyright issues. Time will tell who's right, who's wrong in the TomTom case. Time has proven the OSS fallacies.
Same old FUD
You are happy waiting minutes for your computer to boot up, the noisy cooling fans that drown out low flying jets, the time it takes to copy your own files and being treated like a criminal. You are most unusual.
a. Support tax: In the proprietary world, when you have a problem, you have only one supplier to go to. They can charge you for reporting bugs that others have already reported. They might not fix a bug at all. They can foist downgrades on you when you accept a patch needed for security. They can charge whatever they want for bug fixes and improvements. In the free/open source world, you can check out publicly reported bugs before you download for free. If a bug is a problem for you, or you need an extra feature, you can fix it yourself or hire someone to fix it for you. You are not restricted to a monopoly supplier, so you can get a competitive price.
b. Fragmentation: Windows for workgroups, Window 95, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. Looks a bit fragmented to me. In the free/open source world, there are gigabytes of software
precompiled for lots of distributions. If a piece of software is not provided with your distribution, you can compile it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Almost all of it will compile without modification - even for unusual CPU's like ARM and MIPS. Proprietary software still has difficulty providing software compiled for AMD64.
c. Fanatical user base: There are Apple fanboys, Microsoft fanboys, Penguinistas and normal people. I do not see that any one operating system has bragging rights here.
d. Patent issues: This is a problem with the patent industry. All software suffers from it, especially Microsoft.
e. Copyright issues: Now here you are really stretching it. SCO spent at least $50,000,000 and have failed to find any violation of copyright in Linux whatsoever.
Time will tell who's right, who's wrong in the TomTom case. Time has proven that Microsoft is getting more and more desperate about competition from free/open source software.
Sorry, OSS development doesn't work
It's quite evident:
1996 - "The upshot of this is that right from the opening "Windows" screen, Microsoft has got us somewhat outclassed and have already detected the mouse and modem at the point that we're still loading a kernel off a floppy." Quote by Jordan K. Hubbard
1999 - "Anybody? Semaphore theory used to be really popular at Universities, so there must be somebody who has some automated proving program somewhere..." Quote by Linus Torvalds
2002 - "The fact that Linus *does* have to pass on all such patches, and is dropping a lot of them them on the floor, is the clearest possible example of the weaknesses in the present system." Quote by Eric Raymond
2004 - "If you start to think about that, that's a pretty significant technical
challenge that we (open source developers) need to overcome and it's a hard one because it spans multiple open source projects... the hardest problems are the ones that span multiple open source projects because then you have to get people that don't know each other, to talk to each other and sort how to fix it and they kind of pass the buck around, user space v. kernel space is the classic example..." Quote by Havoc Pennington
Ah,I got my HP computer in 2005.
When did you get yours?
Come on, tell us the truth! You're simply unhappy because your Linux box looks like Windows 98 compared to Windows Vista.
What are you smoking?
And can I have some?
If it's bling you're after you need look no futher than Linux, Compiz-Fusion runs in cirkles around Aero any day, and on a lot less hardware, but that's not really important.
Wow, OSS-developers have challenges they need to overcome too? Sheesh, do you know when Vista was due to ship, originally? Have you seen WinFS yet, they have promised it to be "right around the corner" since NT4.....but MS has no challenges with the development-model they are using, right?
If it costs a lot more it has to be beter, right? Right?
Wake up...
Real Computers
What OS do they run most on Super Computers and why? Think it might be Vista? Or is Vista just for toy computers?
By using quotes badly out of context...
... it's amazing what one can do...
You can even present black as white.
But that doesn't mean you'll convince anybody who can see for themselves
Yawn
Do you ever have anything constructive to say about anything. You pop up all over the place posting the same anti OSS rants. You're getting a bit of a reputation of being nothing more than a rather pathetic Microsoft shill.
How about you post something constructive and not just your usual cut and paste rantings?
I'm running Windows Vista and happy....not
OSS is a fallacy with: a. Support tax (hidden support costs) b. Fragmentation c. Fanatical user base d. Patent issues e. Copyright issues.
To adress: a) Show me FREE support from microsoft. You will never get it. You must pay for support for windows systems as well AND pay licensing fees.
b) Fragmentation is a Windows issue NOT linux. In fact, there isn't a defragmenter to be found for linux
c) Fanatical User Base - ok, I"ll give you that but they are just trying to get people to wake up.
d) Patent issues. FYI - just about all companies have patents. Even the FOSS has them. The problem is in the abuse of them that microsoft is known for.
e) Copyright issues - people pirate software that is expensive. You can't pirate something that is free so what is problem here?
The only reason OSS isn't in use is that businesses are sucumbing to Micosofts hard handed tactics and abuse of patents. But the TCO is still in favor of OSS as more and more people use it and are able to support it.
Time will prove the OSS model to be the only sane one.
Fragmentation is a Windows issue NOT linux...
Not that kind of fragmentation!
Instead, this kind of fragmentation, see http://www.opera.com/browser/download/?os=linux-i386&ver=9.64&local=y
Is that afeature or a bug in OSS development?
I think its a big BUG.
Religious dogma
What fallacies has it proven?
What copyright issues?
What support tax?
Just repeating a mantra won't make it true, try getting free M$ support, have you seen your phone bill after calling them?
How much is M$ paying you to lie?
I hope it's enough that you can sleep at night.
RE: I'm running Windows Vista and happy
Mr. Happy Vista, you like all Micro$atan zombies, are a jerk!
If you won't leave us alone, we'll find someone who will.
Tee hee
You're funny.
Not very logical, nor even factual -- but funny.
The Helios motto
Everybody should look at this one; it speaks for itself:
Linux is to computing what freedom is to mankind...and then there's Microsoft
and it fits in well with the above comment about the poisonous effect Microsoft is having on the totally broken patent system .
Wow
Dude, I think you might just be onto somethign here.
RT
www.online-privacy.pro.tc
Lack of revision control in OSS
"Historically, there never was a formal source code management or revision control system for the Linux kernel... This lack of revision control often left gaping holes between releases, where nobody really knew which changes were in, whether they were merged properly, or what new things to expect in the upcoming release." Paul Larson, IBM
Time to abandon ship...
Lack of revision control in OSS...not
FYI - the two most prominent software solutions for revision control are both open source - subversion and git.
Guess who wrote git? Linus Torvalds.
Guess what specific software it was initially written to revision? The Linux Kernel.
While back in 1991 there may not have been any revision control used, Linux did eventually start using CVS, then BitKeeper when it outgrew the abilities of CVS. After some licensing issues with BitKeepers, Linus himself wrote git which has been used since.
And if you are wondering why I call 'git' and subversion the two most prominent version control solutions - just search for what is the fastest growing and largest used products. Proprietary version control systems are in decline, or have very small growth; while Subversion is quickly replacing many centralized revision control systems (predominately CVS or CVS-based solutions), and git is the leading distributed revision control system.
Disappointed...
I had written an insightful comment in response to this article, but the page reloaded automatically after 10 minutes and erased my comment before it was submitted. I can't think of a good reason to force a web page to refresh automatically, except to boost ad impressions and record additional, false traffic statistics. This is disappointing.
While back in 1991 there may not have been any revision control used...
Sorry, not until 2002.
Read 'A modest proposal -- We need a patch penguin' at http://www.krsaborio.net/research/2000s/02/0128_i.htm .
See also a report on lack of source control in the kernel at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-dev26/
7 to 10 year old non-problems == FUD
2002 - seven years ago? You're obsessing about problems that were solved seven years ago?
Automated semaphore proving - can you please clarify which parts of Windows have correctness proofs associated with them? Are there any mainstream systems that have had significant portions proven correct?
Bringing that up as a supposed problem with OSS is absolutely ridiculous. Outside of academia, correctness proofs are simply not used. I've got a few good friends actively working on moving that field forward...but that's PhD level computer science research in most cases, not stuff you expect to see deployed.
It's sad to see people wasting so much time spreading FUD.
OSS development model for Linux
Nah, it doesn't work, listen to Havoc Pennington's comments:
http://www.icr.co.cr/media/040117_linux_1a.wmv
Fast forward to minute 8.
OSS development model does seem to work for much smaller projects such as Drupal, WordPress, Open-Realty.
Not Linux.
RE: OSS development model for Linux
040117... Meaning Jan 2004? You gotta be kidding me!
Grow up and actually try a recent Linux before sprouting your vomit on these pages.
Fragmentation? Didn't we all love it when XP come out and screwed all our Win98 Games? Indeed! Then Vista over XP, Win7 won't be so fragmented only because they haven't had enough time to break anything else.
Is this FUD, a feature, or a bug?
See http://www.opera.com/browser/download/?os=linux-i386&ver=9.64&local=y
Fragmentation is a bug, a huge bug.
RE: Is this FUD, a feature, or a bug?
The same could be said for the Windows mono-culture. The makes malware easy to spread. Find one hole and you can infect a vast majority of systems.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/12124,microsoft-monoculture-a-us-national-security-risk-report.aspx
Mono-culture is a bug, a huge bug.