ZDNet is running a story that says Microsoft doesn't plan to sue "just now" on its recent claim that Open Source impinges on no fewer than 237 Microsoft patents. I have no idea what's going on in the upper echelons of Microsoft. Some people contend that the threat raised last week was the desperate act of a desperate company. Others tell me that the lawyers got out of control while Ray Ozzie wasn't looking.
In any case, Microsoft has done itself some harm. Just when people were beginning to relax their guard on Redmond, to accept that the company is a former monolith who remains of great significance, just when they were starting to trust them, this hits the fan and leaves the company with a very soiled face.
