[OT] Free software versus software idea patents

[Westley Martínez]

On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 10:18 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 10:04 AM, harrismh777 <harrismh777 at charter.net> wrote:
> >    Not so fast there, Steve. If they [Microsoft] are paying anything
> > (unsubstantiated, unknowable) to Python, Apache, or (Linux, whatever you
> > mean by that term...) there are only two motives:
> 
> http://www.python.org/psf/ - Microsoft is listed. I would assume one
> does not become a "sponsor member" without paying money (or a whole
> lot of something that translates to money, like staff hours).
> 
> http://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html - again, Microsoft is
> listed (in the top category, "Platinum Sponsors").
> 
> Feel free to continue discussing the merits of these donations, but it
> is definitely substantiable and knowable. Microsoft has money, and
> they're prepared to spend it on what they believe in. (My view is that
> they believe in positive PR more than they believe in Python or Apache
> or whatever.)
> 
> Chris Angelico

I'm sure they're using both products for in-house stuff. Who isn't? ^_^