Nice to see the millionaire (Shuttleworth) and the billionaires (Gates, Ballmer, MS etc) get together and agree on things. Sort of a touchy feel good moment in time.

I tried ubuntuu, and I agree with one of Neils old posts that the brown desktop sucks. Give me Windows any day!

Just pay the $399 for Vista and be done with it till Vienna comes out. You know you will need it too when it comes out, cause it will be the best thing since sliced bread. Bill is a genious, thats why everyone is using his software, except for a few malcontents that use inferior Macs and Linux. Cheap bastards who are nothing but thiefs and pirates using Bills patents and code! They should all go to prision.

Bill Gates is like a god. And he will evenually do great things with all his money. Microsoft is like the Roman Empire, its not going away for a thousand years. Get used to it crybaby LInux/Mac malcontents. Again, windows and office are the best, and Bill and Steve have said so. Good nuff 4 me.

Translation:
Mark Shuttleworth: MS, are you stupid? you are peeing outside toilet because "I'm pretty certain that"...etc,etc.
This is just about telling "MS's "geniuses" to look further than their noses.

You have hit the nail on the head. Take the recent Mp3 patent case payout for example...

Wrong.

Microsoft's patents are more valuable than other patents.
Just like your children are smarter and prettier than other people's.

So, while it might make financial sense for Microsoft to oppose all patents, it won't if it means accepting that their patents are second-rate.

Now makes you wonder if Ubuntu doesn't have some patent agreement with Dell regarding those 20,000 new workstations they plan on selling soon.

Mark Shuttleworth is at least partly right.
No company that has a significant business actually selling products, can afford to spend large amounts of time pressing patent lawsuits. The amount of ill-will generated from the lawsuits eventually starts eroding your legitimate business.
So it's one or the other. If you're going to be a patent troll, then you can't do anything else on the side. Not to say Microsoft couldn't do it; but it would involve winding down the Dimdows and Office businesses, to concentrate entirely on patent lawsuits.

Well, if you want to make money sueing for patent infringment, you have to sue those who have the money. MS has the money, and is the biggest target of lawsuits out there.

I would also dare say that MS infringes on more patents on Linux/Unix than the other way around. Its one of the hidden truths as to why MS is willing to make patent cross licensing deals, like with Novell. It is easy for MS to accuse Linux, as all GPL code can be read, its open source. But MS windows code is closed source and cannot be read so easily, if at all. Although, this has not stopped the virus writters.

In a court battle, there will be counter claims of patent infringment, and the closed windows code will be opened to inspect it. MS really does not want this to happen. Code will get inspected that will go to the heart of MS system, the very stuff that MS has protected all these years.

Joe, I read Mark Shuttleworth's blog (to which you provided a link). I agree with what he says, but I don't quite agree with the title!

Bill Gates initially rallied against software patents, and Microsoft's business grew quite spectacularly well without them for a long time.
But then he got the sense that without a patent portfolio, Microsoft would be at a disadvantage in the business arena and so created a patent portfolio with his usual tenacity and drive.

So Microsoft is in a tough situation. On one hand, it knows that software patents are not at all necessary to software innovation, and early Microsoft and also GNU/Linux have demonstrated the stellar progress, both technical and business, that can be made without them.

But on the other hand, Microsoft feels very threatened by GNU/Linux, has almost run out of weapons with which to combat that threat, and is really left with only one weapon left: GNU/Linux must be made illegal. And the only way to do that (other than outright huge bribes of entire national governments) is with software patents.

Ah, decisions, decisions. What to do? What to do?

The trouble is that Microsoft's vast wealth enables it to straddle the fence and play both sides at the same time. And because of that, I do feel that Microsoft is indeed a threat. Or more precisely, Microsoft's use of its Monopoly is the threat. But that's true of any monopoly and not only Microsoft.

Whoa Sam, Whoa.
It's quite clear that you haven't
toyed around with Linux much.
Linux is endlessly customizable,
and granted, the default Vista theme is
prettier than Ubuntu/Gnome's /anyday/.
However, if you could see some of the
customized Ubuntu desktops, I have little
doubt that you would switch,
if you like eyecandy.
Psx, seach youtube for Vista vs ubuntu.
worth a watch.

Addressing your comment,'Get used to it crybaby LInux/Mac malcontents."
That really makes no sense at all.
Use Mac for awhile, and realize how weird it is
not to have a slow moving program glitch, having
to hit shutdown multiple times, or crashes.
No one needs (or would want if they saw the alternatives, and they weren't gamers.[I am, so I dual-boot]) to Windows software vs Mac's.
I don't own a Mac, but many I know do.
Never heard a complaint out of them.
The Windows user friends of mine are constantly
calling for help though.
Plus, with Vista's upgrade cost, that takes away
its primary advantage over Mac.
Everybody is using Bill Gates software, because
they spread lies about opposition.
Don't believe me? Check out Microsoft's
"Get The Facts" campaign.
And here's a fact to note: more than 60% of
webservers are linux/apache, not any version
of Windows Server.
That's not because of cost either.
Apache has a better score on its tests.
Google, eBay, Yahoo! and others don't run it for nothing. Read this to learn more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/security_report_windows_vs_linux/

By the way, I'm not a Linux/Mac die hard.
I would just as easily see Microsoft reclaim its throne, but it must /earn/ its place as king of the OS world.