Microsofts new way of bashing Linux

[Lee Revell]

On Sat, 2006-06-17 at 08:11 +0800, Michael T. Richter wrote:
> The fact is that many hardware manufacturers have trade secrets.  I
> know the CT company I worked for had (and still has!) many trade
> secrets around their software.  Exposing the driver source code can
> give a competitor--one smart enough to keep their trade secrets to
> themselves--a whole whack-o-clues about the trade secrets I have were
> I stupid enough to give my driver source away.  So by making my
> drivers open source, I basically give away my competitive advantage
> and let my competitors reap the benefits of my hard-spent money on
> R&D.
> 

Just patent your hardware innovations - you can release GPL drivers and
no one can rip you off.

Besides, the legal consensus is that closed source Linux drivers are
illegal as they constitute a derived work of the Linux kernel.  This has
not been tested in court yet but it's only a matter of time.

Lee