As many readers have pointed out, the February 11, 2000 article titled, "Solaris and Linux Vulnerable To Hack," posted on our site (www.computercurrents.com) was in error. Although we are responsible for any editorial that appears on our site (and yes, we should have scrutinized this item before we posted it), keep in mind that this was in fact a "feed" from the Newsbytes service, much like an AP or Reuters feed. And as such, we don't typically have control over the content.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - "Love Bugs" of the future could be harder to protect against if Microsoft is split in two, company co-founder Bill Gates writes in an essay published in this week's Time magazine.
OSLO -- Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Wednesday that a possible breakup of the software giant would slow innovation within the industry, but that the company would survive either way.
"Whatever you think about Microsoft, pro or con...the stakes are pretty high for the industry," said Evan Cox from San Francisco law firm Covington & Burling, which represents Microsoft. "What's left after this case is legal rules that apply to everybody: tie-in rules, monopoly rules, having courts make decisions about what is an efficient or allowable integration and then supervise the companies that aren't."
The estimated cost of breaking up Microsoft has reached a new high - consumer worldwide could wind up paying anything up to $310 billion more, according to a new study produced by Professor Stan Liebowitz under the banner of pro-Microsoft and Microsoft-backed lobby group the Association for Competitive Technology.Liebowitz already has a track record of predicting doom for the US economy if Microsoft takes the fall, but the latest (thanks to Kevin Reichard of Linux Today for drawing out attention to it) is more impressive than ever. He estimates that over a three year period price rises in Microsoft software caused by a breakup could cost US consumer $50-125 billion, the higher figure being achieved "if the two new companies completely turn their back on the prior pricing strategy of Microsoft," while the worldwide figure will be at least $125 billion, but up to a maximum of $310 billion.
A Microsoft effort to vilify Linux and other "open source" software appears to be backfiring, with the campaign drawing criticism from legal experts as well as unifying the movement's often-fractious group of leaders.The initiative has included speeches and statements in recent weeks by Microsoft officials, and reached a crescendo of sorts in a recent Chicago Sun-Times interview with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, in which he called Linux "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual-property sense to everything it touches." ...
The Redmond, Wash., company appears to be fighting an uphill battle, since open-source code has become important for a growing number of companies...
Mundie said he didn't have any concrete examples of companies actually being harmed by open source. He conceded that some companies might indeed be able to use Linux and not risk their other intellectual property, but said doing so would require "an army of lawyers" because of the complexity of the GPL. He also said it was too early to conclude that using Linux was entirely safe for companies, since many of the issues haven't been tried in a courtroom.
