First Sun...

The Register strongly took Sun's side in it's battles with Microsoft -- and investors. One in particular (I forget who) would go on and on about how Sun was going to lose marketshare and money until it changed this soon, and the boys at the Reg called him a Loon (which he might be) and then embarked upon an anti-capitalist tirade outlining how financiers and business people kept getting in the way of Good, Hard systems engineering. They should have included customers in their list of History's Enemies, as the emergence of Linux in the Financial Services industry, Solaris's top market, suggests a truly rough road for the company ahead. In this light, the alliance between Microsoft and Sun is not so hard to understand -- both stand to gain by slowing down Linux.

Microsoft's settlement against Intertrust does not really give one much hope either. I heard a (poor) BBC report today that sexed the story up as David v Goliath, but in truth software patents give large companies a veto over any company without an immense patent portfolio (i.e. any small one). Intertrust is mostly a 30 person litigation firm that (rightly) singled out Microsoft as being a fat wallet to bang at, and it managed to get its money in the end. How any of this will eventually help consumers I don't know, but I'm sure Microsoft is eager to get in the news for its fancy new products and services, not its ongoing legal troubles.