Despite the fact that the ongoing patent battle between Microsoft and the open-source community has been going on forever, we haven't had a juicy quote from a high-ranking exec in quite some time. Enter Sun Microsystems product manager James Eagleton, who recently told ZDnet Asia that Microsoft's patent-wielding tactics amount to "patent terrorism" and that the company has essentially started a "cold war" with the open-source community. "That's totally, from Sun's point of view, going against the spirit of innovation around software," Eagleton said of Microsoft's patent claims. "No one, certainly in the OS development community, wants to have these doubts lingering over them, especially users. No one [wants a situation] where you have to think, if I go and use this open source software, who knows who's going to come after me for damages and claims." Eagleton went on to name Sun and IBM as two large vendors whose actions are helping to foster cooperation in the open-source development community, as both companies are working toward making their code base more open.

For more of Eagleton's comments:
- see this ZDnet Asia article