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Simon Phipps comments on Microsoft's latest antics in regards to open source. Specifically, while the public is distracted by show, Microsoft is shaking down the Android/Linux and GNU/Linux communities for patent licenses.
Phipps asserts that it's time for them to put up or shut up by either joining the OIN or admitting that they can't be trusted in the open source community they now claim to love.
Roy Schestowitz has some harsher words on the same topic, noting that the media is ignoring malicious actions in favor of paying attention to the public relations campaign.
While the OIN cannot protect against NPE's aka patent trolls, it is created for just this kind of situation and choosing to join -- or not -- sends a very clear message about their intentions towards the community.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday March 12 2016, @06:07AM
There is the parable of the scorpion and the frog. You may have heard it. Once upon a time, a scorpion wanted to cross a stream, but scorpions cannot swim. A frog passed by, and the scorpion accosted him, saying, "Brother Frog, could you aid me in crossing this stream? You see, I cannot swim, but everyone knows you are an expert in the water. Let me ride on your back to the other side, please?" The frog replied immediately: "No way! If I let you ride upon my back, you will sting me with your stinger, and I would die!" The scorpion demured. "But that would be very foolish on my part, because if you die, I would drown as well! I promise I won't sting you." The frog thought about it, and had to admit that as a rational maximizer of self-interest, the scorpion could not reasonably sting him. So he said, "Alright, hop onto my back." And they set off across the stream. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog. With his dying breaths, the frog asks, "Why? Do you not realized you have just killed us both?" "I know." said the scorpion, "but I am a scorpion, and stinging things is what I do. It is my nature and I cannot deny it."
A similar story was related in Quentin Tarantino's Natural Born Killers. A Native American woman finds a snake that stayed out too late in the season, and was immobilized by the cold on a fall day. The woman took pity on the near frozen reptile, and placed it inside her shirt to warm the poor creature. As soon as the snake had somewhat revived, it bit the woman, fatally, on her chest. She asks the snake, "Why have you done this, do you not realize that I was saving your life? Now both of us will die!" The snake replied, "I am a snake. What did you think was going to happen?"
And so now, the same old story plays itself out yet again. There was a chameleon, and one day a Microsoft came and said, "Could you help me get into open source software?" And then the Microsoft went to a Hat that was red, and made the same request. And then there was a house of sticks, called Debian, and the sticks were fastened together by a systemd, and, and,... Well, it does not end well for anybody. But what did you expect? Moral of the story: Beware talking poisonous corporations.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Tork on Saturday March 12 2016, @06:14AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday March 12 2016, @06:26AM
I forgot to specify that the Microsoft said to its victims, "I promise I won't sue you for patent violations, because that would kill us both, and not be in my own interests!" And the chameleon thought about it, and, well, here we are at the end of the story.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bitstream on Saturday March 12 2016, @12:32PM
Microsoft asked if it could donate some software to the the open source community and get involved and promised to not sue. The community took their software and engagement. But when the entanglement go to it's height. The lawyers and the organization wreckers got marching orders. The community asked why? and the Microsoft said it's in our best interest.
Don't socialize with the snake nor accept the poison gifts.