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Ballmer Threatens Linux and Open Source with Patents Again

At a small meeting of Web 2.0 developers and partners on Oct. 1 at Microsoft’s London office, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once more attacked Linux and open source for violating Microsoft’s patents. The meeting was a Microsoft-sponsored event: the UK Microsoft Startup Accelerator Programme launch event called The Online Opportunity. According to Lars Lindstedt, who […]

Oct 9, 2007
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At a small meeting of Web 2.0 developers and partners on Oct. 1 at Microsoft’s London office, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once more attacked Linux and open source for violating Microsoft’s patents.

The meeting was a Microsoft-sponsored event: the UK Microsoft Startup Accelerator Programme launch event called The Online Opportunity.

According to Lars Lindstedt, who heads up Microsoft’s UK Software Economy and Emerging Business programme, “The intention was to bring together some of the UK’s brightest developers, entrepreneurs and investors who are working in the Web 2.0 space.”

In the meeting’s question and answer session, Ballmer took shots at Google (“They read your mail, we don’t. That’s not pejorative, that’s just a fact.”) as well as Linux and open source.

To continue reading this article by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at Linux-Watch, go here.

Check out eWEEK.com’s for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

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