gabriel rosenkoetter on 3 Apr 2004 18:39:02 -0000


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Re: [PLUG] Re: Well, its official -- Sun is serious about being anti Linux and Open Source


On Sat, Apr 03, 2004 at 01:10:36PM -0500, gabriel rosenkoetter wrote:
> I don't think that has anything to do with your suggestion that Sun
> products would be somehow co-opted by Microsoft ones.

Let me rephrase that.

On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 06:41:40PM -0500, Tobias DiPasquale wrote:
> "The agreements involve payments of $700 million to Sun by Microsoft to 
> resolve pending antitrust issues and $900 million to resolve patent issues. 
> In addition, Sun and Microsoft have agreed to pay royalties for use of each 
> other's technology, with Microsoft making an up-front payment of $350 million 
> and Sun making payments when this technology is incorporated into its server 
> products."
> 
> Who do you think is going to come out ahead in the long run on that deal? 
> Gabe, take the time to read and understand next time.

I did read, and I did understand, the article, prior to posting
anything to the mailing list. You are reading too much into the text
that you have quoted there. There is no suggestion made anywhere
that Sun is obligated to use this money to incorporate Microsoft
technology, nor even that they have any intention of doing so. If
they had some set schedule of software they wanted to license, they
would have done so (or, at least, stated that they were doing so by
Microsoft's set API licensing terms).

What that says to me is that Microsoft admitted they were wrong on
the antitrust issue (because they didn't expect they could win it in
a US court, considering what just happened in Europe), admitted they
were wrong on the patent issues (I don't know the details of the
patent claims between Sun and Microsoft, but I expect all of them
were the kind of frivoulous patents that software companies make
precisely to have legal arsenal in disputes like this), and admitted
that they were ALREADY USING Sun-owned software that they should
have to pay a licensing fee to use, so they did.

It does not say to me that Sun products will ever incorporate
code licensed from Microsoft, and any suggestion that it does is
pure speculation on the part of the suggester. The situation you
suggest is not impossible, but it's far from the only conclusion and
I really don't think that it's even the most probable conclusion.
(Nor do I think that Magill's suggestion that Sun and Microsoft will
now collude against Linux, with Sun playing sidekick, makes very
much sense. The suggestion that Sun is dying, and that this is
evidence of it, is completely absurd, as I've already said.)

I expect that Sun will teach SunONE and their LDAP client how to
play nicely with XP LDAP clients and Active Directory (which probably
also means it'll start playing nicely with OpenLDAP, a change I'd be
glad for *anybody* to pay to have made)

> I'll thank you to keep your mouth shut until you do.

Do try to show a little civility in public, please. Personal insults
may be sent to me privately.

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

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