Patent hit - MS goes after Linux - FreeBSD ?

[Robert Huff]

Jerry writes:

>  I agree up to the point about financial incentive. For myself, I
>  like making money. I don't apologize for that. Most engineers,
>  software / hardware designers also enjoy receiving a monetary
>  reward for their hard work.  Simple giving away our hard work,
>  sweat and time to some socialist just because they feel they have
>  the right to the hard work of others is repulsive.

	Would you call Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) a socialist?
	Some years ago, he was giving an interview and was asked "Jeff,
Amazon has applied for a patent for the One-Click system.  If Amazon had
known before it started there was no chance of receiving a patent -
would it have created One-Click anyway?"
	[While I'm paraphasing, the essential content is preserved.]
	There was a long pause, during which you could tell Bezos
understood _precisely_ what the real question was ...
	... and (to his credit) answered "Yes."

	The programmers got paid.
	Amazon gets paid in the form of more expedient processing and
(presumably) more sales due to ease of check-out.
	Why, as a society, should we deny other innovators the ability
to use that technology to develop - hopefully - even better stuff?


					Robert Huff