Re: [Sheflug] Microsoft patent

[José Luis Gómez Dans <nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk>]

On Thu, May 18, 2000 at 09:32:36AM +0100, Dr A V Le Blanc wrote:
> I see in the Debian news lists that Microsoft have patented
> the idea of updating software over the internet using
> a package management system; this appears to conflict with
> Debian's dpkg as well as Red Hat's rpm system, so it affects
> all Linux distributions except perhaps Slackware.  The patent
> request was filed Nov 14 1997, which is after both of these

	I suppose it conflicts with FreeBSD (I dunno about the other
BSDs, but I guess same applies here) system, which was slightly older.
But again this seems like a new blunder by patent officials.

> systems were in use, but it would be a pity if Linux groups
> had a legal wrangle with Microsoft at this stage of the game.

	Just have to get 19 states and the US government to stick
together and wait for 3 or 4 years, and that's sorted :)

	Moreover, does MS actually use this procedure at all? I thought
they relied on releasing incompatible versions of the software in which
you *must* have previous and actual version of the same thing, therefore
making package management redundant... :)

	Regards,
	José
-- 
José L Gómez Dans			PhD student
					Radar & Communications Group
					Department of Electronic Engineering
					University of Sheffield UK
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