Quote:
|
Originally Posted by bassplayinMacFiend
Because, just by spreading this tiny bit of FUD, they'll keep almost all Fortune 500 companies firmly nestled against the teat that is MS Office.
|
Bingo.
That is the clearest reason for the little clause for OpenOffice in the settlement: scare away ANYONE from even THINKING about using an alternative solution to MS Office (or StarOffice, what a joke).
Of course, this doesn't bode well for anyone using Linux, but how many offices really use Linux for anything other than servers?
ArsTechnica has a good
take on this:
Quote:
If so, should new OpenOffice.org users live in fear of a lawsuit? Probably not. A monopoly such as Microsoft needs to wield the patent-enforcement bat with care, especially when such a move could cripple the competition. Intellectual property lawyer Tom Moore notes that
"Because of its own legal wrangling with the U.S. Department of Justice, [Microsoft] needs to be even more careful than most in bringing patent lawsuits. 'There's the concept of "patent misuse" that could come into play,' he said. 'When a patent holder is a monopolist, they need to move a little more carefully than does the usual patentee.'"
|