Microsoft vs Linux

There have been lots of press coverage concerning Microsoft 's patent threats against the open source community and what it might mean to the good folks who work on the 10-million different flavors of Linux. Some people are saying that its nothing more than just bluster on Microsoft's part, a desperate attempt to try and slow down the slow, but rising growth of Linux, which is taking place at Window's expense. Others still think it could yet be a big deal. What's the truth?

Well, my 2 cents take on the whole thing is that I am not too worried about it, one way or the other, because for one thing, I'm a dedicated OS X user, and happy and content just to watch the two of them swing it out in the press, and who knows, maybe some day soon in the courts as well?

Regardless of what the out come of this whole sorted mess is, the fact remains that the both of them, Microsoft and the Linux boys are both trying to out do each other by ripping off the interface goodness of Apple's OS X. From Vista's Aero to Beryl, they both are trying to have you believe that they are simply the most and best source of innovation in the market place.

Well, the truth, though most of them won't admit it, is that OS X is the leading desktop innovator. Window's and Linux are just two copy cats trying their best to have you believe other wise.

Vista, after a much publicized half decade of fumbling and Beryl, XGL and others on the Linux side, will both be hard pressed, come this June, when Apple finally reveals, in all its glory, Leopard, the sixth major incarnation of its celebrated and ever so much copied OS.

What would be interesting is to see Apple going after the both of them for all of the patented GUI effects that they both copied from OS X, and which it has had for the past six years or more.

While these two duke it out, I and other OS X users, will just sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of the most innovative high-tech giant out there... Apple!

And that's my two cents worth!