The software patent cold war is getting less cold

finite — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:26:56 -0800

[Patent Lawsuit Filter] On Wednesday Sun Microsystems announced a counter suit against Network Appliance, wherein they will draw on their "defensive portfolio" which is "one of the largest patent arsenals on the internet". They are going to be requesting a permanent injunction to remove all of NetApp's filer products from the marketplace, and also seeking monetary damages (half of which they've pledged to donate to the Software Freedom Law Center and Peer to Patent Project). Last month, NetApp sued Sun for patent infringements in ZFS. Earlier this month in Texas, the first ever patent infringement lawsuit against Linux distributors was filed. The plaintiff in the case against Red Hat and Novell is IP Innovation and Technology Licensing, a company that successfully got some money from Apple with a similar claim earlier this year. They're owned by Acacia Technologies, a company with close ties to Microsoft, which has caused some to suggest that this suit might be more about spreading FUD than about securing licensees for patents. The Sun/NetApp case is less clear-cut. In September, the founder of Network Appliance (Dave Hitz) announced on his blog that they were suing Sun for patent infringement, explaining that "Sun has been using its patent portfolio as a profit center. About 18 months ago, Sun’s lawyers contacted NetApp with a list of patents they say we infringe, and requested that we pay them lots of money." Sun's CEO (Jonathan Schwartz) replied on his blog, thanking NetApp for suing them and saying that "Sun did not approach NetApps about licensing any of Sun's patents and never filed complaints against NetApps or demanded anything." Dave replies that he is stunned by Jonathan's response, in a post titled "Sun Patent Team Demanded $36 Million From NetApp". After this, their blogs went silent on the subject for a few weeks. Then, Jonathan announced the counter suit (the first link in the fpp), and Dave responded with two more blog entries. Groklaw has reason to believe Microsoft is also involved in this case.

The How-To Geek

nthdegx — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 06:09:39 -0800

The How-To Geek provides hints and tips for a variety of operating systems and popular pieces of software. The how-tos cover a pleasing range of head-slapping I-should-have-known-thats to relatively advanced techniques. Follow the latest page to read the site in blog form.

Running Fedora on a Mac Mini...

AlexReynolds — Thu, 19 May 2005 12:55:39 -0800

How to run Fedora Core 4 on a Mac Mini... RedHat's Colin Charles explains how to install the free Fedora next to Mac OS X Tiger on the inexpensive Mac Mini. Linux doesn't get much easier or stylish than this.

Switch to Linux

jdaura — Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:13:58 -0800

"When you're holding the moon for ransom, you value the stability of an application..." - The marketing genius of the Apple Switch campaign combined with the religious zealotry of the Linux overlords. My understanding was that this was originally slated to run during the superbowl, but was pulled at the last second due to the racy references to fembots.

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The software patent cold war is getting less cold

The How-To Geek

Running Fedora on a Mac Mini...

Switch to Linux