Editor's Corner

Yesterday, we briefly discussed Bill Gates's recent speech at Stanford University, where he reiterated Microsoft's goal to be "Number One". Well, CNET ran an interview with Mr. Gates yesterday, where the head honcho goes into a bit more detail about some of Microsoft's new products, including the mPod--I mean, Zune. Especially interesting, however, are his comments on Office 2007. You'll remember that I've been quite skeptical about the radically new interface; Bill, however, seems totally confident that you'll love it: "In fact, within a few days, people do not want to go back to the (old) version because the ribbon (feature) takes advantage of the idea that screens are bare now, and instead of burying things in a two-level menu, just (has) them out there."

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was delivering a keynote at the Professional Association for SQL Server conference in Seattle. When discussing Microsoft's recent deal with Novell, Ballmer commented that the agreement was motivated by a desire to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation," as Linux "uses our intellectual property." Wait, say what? As part of the agreement, Microsoft will pay Novell $440 million for coupons redeemable for one year of SUSE Linux maintenance and support. However, Novell will also pay $40 million in exchange for Microsoft's agreement not to sue SUSE Linux users over patent violations--an aspect of the deal that now seems especially pertinent. "Novell pays us some money for the right to tell customers that anybody who uses SUSE Linux is appropriately covered," Ballmer said. This "is important to us, because [otherwise] we believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability." Because, as we all know, it's not like Microsoft was ever taken to court for ripping off someone else's GUI...oh wait. -Mehan