CIO Today On my Microsoft Comments

They picked up my blog: http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=10000C9NLT9W&nl=5

"The Linux Foundation isn't too concerned about lawsuits. Microsoft is too smart to take a page out of the SCO handbook and sue its own business partners and customers, said Amanda McPherson, the foundation's marketing director. She then posed a question of her own: Is Microsoft certain it has not infringed upon the patents of the companies that represent the entire open-source ecosystem?

"Microsoft will need to be careful what it starts, given that it cannot know where this will end. I think most knowledgeable software users see this posturing for what it is: empty threats from a scared giant whose monopoly is being challenged," McPherson wrote in the foundation's blog, alleging further that Microsoft has a monopoly on operating systems and productivity software.

The marketing director called Microsoft's allegations a well-funded and well-run FUD campaign (a marketing strategy that aims to created Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). A patent war, she continued, guarantees only one sure outcome: mutually assured destruction for all involved. "I urge everyone to see this for what it is: a FUD campaign," she concluded. "Don't let Microsoft or anyone else get away with it."