How Linus Torvalds Helped Bust a Microsoft Patent 103
New submitter inhuman_4 passes along this quote from an article at Wired:
"Last December, Microsoft scored a victory when the ITC Administrative Law Judge Theodore R. Essex found that Motorola had violated four Microsoft patents. But the ruling could also eliminate an important Microsoft software patent that has been invoked in lawsuits against Barnes & Noble and car navigation device-maker Tom Tom. According to Linus Torvalds, he was deposed in the case this past fall, and apparently his testimony about a 20-year-old technical discussion — along with a discussion group posting made by an Amiga fan, known only as Natuerlich! — helped convince the Administrative Law Judge that the patent was invalid."
typo in summary (Score:2, Funny)
That'll be the 'Amiga' fan posting in comp.sys.atari.st about the ST's OS options will it?
Part of the 20 year old discussion... (Score:5, Funny)
Linus: (b) do the long filenames by fooling around with several consecutive minix-type directory entries. Depending on how you do it, you can make old binaries see only th first characters of a extended filename, while new binaries see them all. Besides, this means you won't waste a full 64-char direntry for short files, but instead use several entries only when necessary. The downside is that it's a bit more work in the kernel.
Reading about saving bytes and caring about storage... um, gave me a semi...
internet vs lawyers (Score:5, Funny)
I can imagine the Laywer vs Torvalds.
Lawyer: Are you sure this alledged discussion happend before the MS patent ...
Linus: Yes, I'm sure, in fact the timestamp is right there: Dec 23 1992, 8:34 am
Lawyer: 20 Years is a long time ago, how can you be so sure?
Linus: the timestamp is right there: Dec 23 1992, 8:34 am
Lawyer: So there is no doubt you might remeber the date wrong.
Linus: No.
Lawyer: Really, So when did this discussion happend?
Linus: Dec 23 1992, 8:34 am
Lawyer: I see, are you sure about the date?
Internet 1, Lawyers 0
Thank you internet news groups for documenting these old discussions.
Re:Atari ST & Amiga (Score:3, Funny)
I agree. Let it drop. We all know the Atari ST sucks, while the Amiga still kicks $ss!!!!
Re:Atari ST & Amiga (Score:5, Funny)
Be sure to let us know when you've managed to get your Amiga to boot from a hard disk...