[extropy-chat] EU judgement goes agaisnt Microsoft

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
> Linus Torvalds is a resident of the state of
> Califonia, which is
> (arguably) part of the US.

I thought he was just visiting, on extended visa from
Finland.  Oh, well...

> However, Linus does not run a compony which controls
> the
> content of an operating system, and is therefore not
> accountable for
> the capabilities of any particular computer that is
> running Linux.
> 
> This is in stark contrast to M$, which uses its
> monopoly power
> to coerce computer manufacturers to deliver
> computers with
> M$ operating systems.

Technically, he runs the group that creates the core
architecture of Linux; a poor understanding of how
this works (all too easy to find among judges) might
conceive that he could use this power to introduce
security flaws, if he wanted.  (In truth, he couldn't;
the only result of serious and repeated attempts to do
so is that someone else would take over.  But you just
have to convince the judge that it could happen.)

The real reason is the money.  If justice be done,
Microsoft should easily win any suit claiming that
trying to remove security holes is, itself, inherently
anti-competitive.  In fact, if the suit is as it
seems, justice would say it should be able to extract
damages just for having this particular suit brought
against them (if, in fact, it has been).