Microsoft and The Plan [LWN.net]

Microsoft and The Plan

Posted Aug 3, 2004 2:47 UTC (Tue) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494)
In reply to: Linux Scare Tactics (Forbes) by BrucePerens
Parent article: Linux Scare Tactics (Forbes)

Don't you think Microsoft has a plan when they increase patent filing so much?

Microsoft's plan to date has been:

Promise the Earth
Take the money
"You promised them what?"
Panic internally
Release vapourware
Buy something that will do the job, and badge-engineer it
Shaft the company you bought it from
Release the beta-quality software with great fanfare (spend more on the fanfare than the development)
Have the machine bluescreen in front of thousands of people when you plug the scanner in [optional]
Have support tell customers that it's their hardware, their particular system, or an unsupported configuration
Profit anyway

By nailing the feet of a lot of technology to the floor (like Mike as John Cleese in the Blender SigGraph 2004 reel), Microsoft have reduced this complex process to three short steps:

Taint down everything you can reach with a patent
Take the money
Profit

Unfortunately for them, their role when the mob arrives with pitchforks and torches will parallel that of the leader of the KoDan Armada (Lord Kril) when Alex Rogan depowers his command ship while it's in the path of a moonlet. "What do we do?" "We die".

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