Are Microsoft Shooting themselves in the foot over Linux Lawsuits

Are Microsoft shooting themselves in the foot with the patent lawsuits they are filing regarding Linux. Now, whilst I'm not privy to all the facts of the case, I can still form an opinion on the subject.

Microsoft, I feel are going through a transistonary period. They are currently facing many challenges on many fronts. For many years they had it all their own way, near enough complete domination of the home computer software market with no real competitors in sight. Then things started to change, slowly at first, but significantly. The Internet allowed people to use their computers in different ways, people were starting to communicate via their machines rather just using them to create reports and pie charts!

People talked, people listened and eventually Microsoft started to lose ground. New companies started to emerge, Google became the search engine of choice, Apple started to make comeback - the Internet became a place of opportunity. User communities were springing up all over the place, as were developers who now had a platform to showcase their software to like minded individuals, which brings me to my next point - Linux.

Linux is a distribution based piece of software that runs on personal computers. It is an operating system created by Linus Torvalds and when it was first released the source code was freely available to anyone who wanted it, as long as they were prepared to release their changes back into the community. Distributions sprang up, some more popular than others, some have now gone onto become commercial successes (Red Hat being one of them), which is what is causing Microsoft to ruffle it's feathers.

It seems that Microsoft is claiming that a number of Linux distributions are infringing their patents and are threatening the companies that use them with legal action. One major sticking point is that Microsoft is failing to mention which ones they are! It seems MS are hoping the threat alone will stop companies using Linux OS software in their products or face the possibility of huge fines, the Dutch company Tom-Tom being one of the more high profile cases.

Take a look at these points,

1. The guys who work on the Linux software are extremely clever and seasoned developers and they have huge amounts of people working on the code, far more than Microsoft could ever employ. If MS were to ever actually state the actual infringements and if there was a genuine case of patent infringement, the code would be rewritten by the developers in a matter of moments and released for download.
2. Microsoft has had the lion's share of the home computer market for a long, long time and a little competition never hurt anyone. They now have multiple competitors: Linux, Apple and what was the result, ms release their best ever operating system with Windows 7. It seems the competition did them some good, compared to the normally buggy releases that take years to become what they should have been at release date.
3. The vast majority of people like to fair play and Microsoft's actions are anything but. They are purposefully trying to stifle the competition they are facing from Linux. I know they are trying to protect their future, but this should be done through innovation and product development(see my points below). If Microsoft continue down this route the only they will stifle is the growth of their reputation. Take a look at Apple, their reputation has gone through the roof these last 10 years or so and it is mainly through them delivering products that satisfy upon release. When a new product is released, the die hard fans buy them in their droves and this is because the people that buy them know that the product will deliver and they never question if the product lives up to expectations. I'm not a massive Apple fan, I own a couple of products, namely an iPod and MacMini but only for application development. I have to say, they are both very good products and I have no doubt if I bought another Apple product it would be very good and I would be happy with it.

Microsoft have started to branch in to other markets and I consider them to be a company I trust (now) when it comes to delivering software and hardware. ASP.net is a great framework and runs on thousands of machines and servers. The Xbox, another great piece of Hardware that has been bought and used by millions of people. Microsoft are also building and developing 'Surface' a great looking product and if it lives up to its promise will help instill Microsoft in to the psyche of the millions of future users that are out there. It is these things that Microsoft should concentrate on, not slapping companies with lawsuits.

Facebook and Microsoft to take on Google?

I'm a pretty regular Facebook user, but I am a heavy, heavy Google user. I was browsing on Facebook the other day and I have seen that Facebook is offering up web search results as part of its search scheme. Have I clicked on the links yet? No, I still use Google.

Google became popular because it offered great results and its home page was quick to load for dial up users, these were its advantages and like in nature, the strongest survived. Could Facebook's main advantage be that allows people to do everything in one place. Search And Socialise could be next big thing - Remember that users are only one click away from leaving any site.

At the moment though it seems that Facebook is beginning to offer these results as a supplementary set of links after the results that are shown for pages/profiles on their own system. How is it doing this? Well the key thing is that they are using Bing as the provider. Bing as we all know, is part Microsoft/part Yahoo and it should come as no surprise that Microsoft is becoming more and more visible in Facebook. For those who didn't know, MS bought a large stake in the site in 2007. In my opinion, I'm surprised that it took them this long to do it.

It seems that is this is yet another step by Microsoft/Bing, after their merger with Yahoo to take on Google and to make sure they are at the forefront of the web. They know that were caught with their pants down when it came to the Internet and how it was going change the way that people were going to go about their day to day business. Google on the other hand, were one of the companies that really benefited from this and it was them have constantly pushed the boundaries, whether it be offering an Web Email alternative to Hotmail or buying companies that they know can improve their business model.

So what could this mean for the future, well a few things are starting to emerge in the online world which shows that Microsoft and its partners are slowly to try to catch Google in the Search Engine and online application stakes. When Google launched it's version of office online that allowed users to create and edit from decentralised locations, it was seen as ground breaking. Microsoft has not taken this lying down and has in the last couple of weeks incorporated software into Hotmail that allows users who have sent and received MS Office documents to edit them from within their browser in the cloud.

In terms of Facebook, what next there. Well I bet that we'll once again get an update to the Facebook front end that will add the Bing results in to the pages in a more in-your-face-way rather than at the bottom of the pages, like they are now.

For Google, their next big mission is obviously going to be the encroachment on the operating system market with their introduction of Chrome OS. This may allow them to take back other market share that they may lose in the future as a result of the above. They are though, going to have to think long term with this project. There are a number of large players in this market already, most notably Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and loosening their grip on the operating system is going to be tough - I'm sure most of you know how loyal Apple fans are.

James

Bing and Yahoo to Merge - My thoughts

My thoughts on the new Search Engine Service from Bing/Yahoo

I recently reported on this in my site's news section to read that post, please go here

We all know that competition is good in any market and I think that if Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo can create a real rival to Google then it will be good for the state of Internet. It's not that I am anti-Google, I the contrary I like it. I use many Google services, not just the search engine, but also Spreadsheets that I need to keep at a centralised location, as well as other services like the GoogleMail and Blogger.

Another point that I would like to make, that unlike many other industries, where one major player is dominant (i.e. a monopoly) Google does not seem to take its customers for granted. They have realised that people can quickly move from one Search Engine to another and that they must continue to offer more and more services to make sure they remain on top.

I have to say that I think this could be good for the industry as a little competition never hurt anyone and that it could really could improve. Knowing Google though, they will probably already making plans to make sure they remain on top and are probably relishing the challenge this new rival offers.

How this will affect the Search Engine Industry and those who work in it, only time will tell. I work within the SEO industry and at the moment, nearly all the focus of our work points towards Google and not either Yahoo or Bing, this will now, no doubt change.

I do add one note of caution to those who want MS to succeed against Google. Remember that when Microsoft obtain market dominance (like they did in the browser wars of 90's or the home PC software market) competition can suffer - something that no one would like to see in the world of the Internet, least of all me.