“At a recent news conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sought
to impugn the character of the free/open source world by implying
that it had no respect for the intellectual property rights of
others. It’s not just the enormous ignorance embodied by this
duplicitous braggadocio that caught my eye, it’s the fact that the
claim is coming from a man associated with Microsoft, which is far
and away the most notorious IP thief of all time.“One thing should be obvious. It’s difficult for an open source
project to steal code. After all, access to the code is offered up
to all comers. That transparency is the basis for the trust and
respect open source has garnered for itself in every corner of the
world. Everyone who is curious about the code can see it for
themselves. With his assertion, Ballmer has joined SCO’s leadership
as being among either the stupidest, or the most dishonest, IT
execs on the planet. Take your pick. I choose both…”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.