Robert Pogson

I hate to kick a man when he is down, but this guy is not all the way down…

Steve Ballmer held a press conference in which he announced to the world that his company was going to sue Linux (in all its forms) for violating his company’s patents. Then, just a few days later, his lawyers were arguing against ATT in the Supreme Court of the United States of America about some software when they stated that they agreed with ATT that software was not patentable, being just an idea or a string of bits, not an implementation of an invention. I figure that Ballmer cannot patent the computer because that is an old idea, and software on its own is not patentable, so they cannot very well patent software running on a computer.

So where’s the beef? This is purely FUD. They cannot sue Linux in any form for violating their precious patents, successfully. If they tried and fell flat, it would be game over sooner, rather than later. In my schools and classrooms the game is already over, and I have been in a different school every year since 1999, so I, personally, have introduced hundreds to Linux and the freedom Linux brings. I am now meeting many who have started using Linux without my help. That was rare only two years ago. The wave is here. A lot of conceptions are going to be swept aside including patentability of software, software monopolies, and Steve Ballmer.