Linux Foundation: We Have Our Own Patent 'Arsenal'

[Rich Tate]

It appears that the patent war is really starting to heat up as the Linux Foundation has chimed in to support software makers who may be threatened with patent infringement.

"Touch one member of the Linux community, and you will have to deal with all of us," reads Zemlin's article. "Microsoft is not the only - perhaps not even the largest - owner of patents in this area. Individual members of the Linux ecosystem have significant patent portfolios.

 

[pxc]

My dad can beat up your dad.

 

[Pepsiennis]

I used to enjoy trying out Linux distros, but the childishness of that community has really made me not want to be associated with it. Linux has sucked since Libranet folded, and it folded because the zealots got into its 'community' and drove away the average Joe trying to enjoy the damn thing. This whole 'The Man is keeping me down' shit is just too old a dog.

 

[ianken]

I used to enjoy trying out Linux distros, but the childishness of that community has really made me not want to be associated with it. Linux has sucked since Libranet folded, and it folded because the zealots got into its 'community' and drove away the average Joe trying to enjoy the damn thing. This whole 'The Man is keeping me down' shit is just too old a dog.

QFT.

The thought I bunch of the linux zealots being able to coordinate a patent defense is laugable. They're just as bad as watching the nerds at the local game shop argue over D&D rules. They wouldn't be able to stop fighting each other long enough to mount a serious legal attack on MS.

 

[kevlinsky]

I will preface this by saying that I use both Linux (Gentoo and Xubuntu) and Windows. I haven't seen that many "zealots" in the Linux forums I periodically go to when I need to ask a question. The worst I've seen is basic RTFM or "This question has already been answered" type of stuff, and that is usually to people whose first reaction when they run into a problem is to ask on a forum rather than do a search (i.e. the negative response is usually followed by a link to Google search results). I hate to sound elitist, but if the first response someone has to a problem with their computer is to ask someone else, then they really shouldn't be using Linux. A better way to phrase it might be "Linux is not for them."

I have never had any Linux distribution install flawlessly right from the get-go. It has always taken tweaking to get it installed properly. With Windows or a prebuilt computer, you have someone to call for tech support, usually. These people are paid to answer your questions politely. If they could be rude, some of them might work for free. With open source software, you have a message board where you can ask questions. There are a few kinds of people who answer questions on this type of board:

1. People like me, who don't browse it all the time, but will try to answer any questions they see the every once-in-a-while when they need to ask one.
2. Software developers or maintainers, who like to see what problems/bugs are creeping up in their software so that they can fix it.
3. People who spend a lot of time on Linux message boards answering questions for reasons unknown.

#3 are the people that tend to be snippy. A developer tends to want more people to use their project; they spent a lot of time working on it, and they want other people to use it. The "zealots" don't give a shit, and I guess they need to "pwn n00bs" to get their jollies. However, these people usually don't know how to program, aside from maybe writing really long one-line command-line statements. As such, they won't make their way to be influential in the open source community.

There are some nut-jobs in the "upper-management" of the open source community; the first one that comes to mind is Richard Stallman, who eats his hair and wants GPLv3 to disallow DRM. However, there are many sane people who take a practical stance when looking at Linux and open source; Linus Torvalds seems like a rational person. And like anything else, the rational people tend to outnumber the software communists like Stallman. These are the people who will be trying to fight Microsoft's patent-infrignement claims. And we need these people to fight Microsoft. Because face it, if there is no competition, then commercial software will become stagnant. Just look at how long people have been living with IE6 and how Microsoft at one point was talking about dropping developing for it. There are similar things going on on the server side; there are improvements to IIS in response to Apache, there is now the option to not install a resource-consuming GUI (among other things). Without Linux's large marketshare in the server arena to challenge Microsoft, these updates would not have come, at least not yet.

 

[Pepsiennis]

... I hate to sound elitist, but if the first response someone has to a problem with their computer is to ask someone else, then they really shouldn't be using Linux...

Hello kevlinsky,
You make some interesting arguments, especially concerning competition, which I'd hazard to say most computer enthusiasts would agree with, or at least entertain. As for the above comment, in the interest of brevity I shortened it to that which concerns my own comment but which I've also tried to leave in context as much as possible in the interest of fairness, as it's distasteful when people intentionally take things out of context. Now, the above comment suggests an attitude that I was refering to in my earlier post, one which leaves Linux inaccessible to those interested in it. The thought that they should not play in the Linux sandbox until they're familiar with Linux raises the catch-22 of denying them the hand-on experience one needs to use the operating system. A linux proponent, and I'm speaking broadly here and not of you specifically, does his cause a disservice when he makes comments that intimidate the uninitiated yet seeking new user. Unless, that is, linux is indeed to remain simply a server platform.

Best Regards!

 

[kevlinsky]

The thought that they should not play in the Linux sandbox until they're familiar with Linux raises the catch-22 of denying them the hand-on experience one needs to use the operating system. A linux proponent, and I'm speaking broadly here and not of you specifically, does his cause a disservice when he makes comments that intimidate the uninitiated yet seeking new user.

The catch-22 you mention is indeed troublesome for most people; it was a problem for me when I got started. There are two general points I would like to make on the issue. The first is that there are "sandboxes" out there for people to try with no risk. These are the LiveCD distributions, of which Knoppix is my favorite, followed by the Ubuntu one which you can actually install from. I learned the basics of using Linux from Knoppix. The LiveCDs show you generally what you can expect from Linux, and you can play with the configuration files in the environment without being afraid of causing permanent damage (Just stay away from the hard drives, and if you break it, just reboot. Good as new).

The second problem is with the distributions that do everything for you. They are great and get you running quickly. However, if (when) something breaks, it is a lot of work for the uninitiated to figure out how to fix it. This is probably why so many people just ask how to fix a problem rather than looking it up; they probably don't even know what to search for. That is why I recommend people learn on Gentoo. It is a PITA to install and get going, but this is the only distro that I've managed to get to behave exactly how I want it to. When something goes wrong in the future, you have the vocabulary to required to find a fix. Also, I've found that Gentoo has the best documentation out of any distribution.

The last point I would like to make is that Linux is simply not ready for prime time as a desktop operating system. It is not something that I recommend for people to try. There are just some things that don't work in Linux, and you'll spend days and days trying to get it working only to find out that it is impossible unless you want to go program something yourself. Linux is great for geeks who can fix their own machine. If you are willing to read and learn (on your own prior to asking questions), you can set up a machine which boots up very quickly, is very stable and secure, and can often do things that a Windows-based machine can't.