The technical boards of ISO and IEC have dismissed appeals by four of its members against adopting Microsoft's Office Open XML formats as an ISO/IEC International Standard.
Whitepaper:
Overcoming the Minefield of Linux Patents
Jul 16, 2008
The biggest problem with getting stuff for free is that you are likely to be irritating some company wanting to charge for the service. That is exactly the relationship between Linux and Microsoft. Despite being one of the most successful and profitable companies on the planet, it seems that Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer is losing sleep over all the cash that the evil free software community is diverting from his firm.
Ballmer asserts that Linux developments have infringed nearly 250 Microsoft patents and he hints that to some extent free software developers are standing on the shoulders of Microsoft developers. Microsoft is not the only bear in the room for the Linux community as there are a number of other patent-based issues that Linux faces. However, Linux survives thanks to some innovative options and a delicate balance.
In this white paper we will review the problems and solutions to Linux’s seemingly age-old patent issues.
Jon Masters follows the recent foibles surrounding DRM – Digital Rights Management – and gives a roundup of the latest news from a variety of Linux community groups.
The European Commission has imposed a fine of 899 m Euros on Microsoft, stating that the company had demanded unreasonable prices for interface documentation for it Workgroup servers.
