David vs. Goliath is a nice story, but it's always better to have someone bigger on your side. MSFT has a huge warchest, and therefor a big advantage going aga

David vs. Goliath is a nice story, but it's always better to have someone bigger on your side. MSFT has a huge warchest, and therefor a big advantage going against the FSF. I'd look for support for the cause of free software from the likes of GOOG, IBM, and YHOO (assuming the latter isn't bought by MSFT); companies that make a lot of money by not paying the MSFT tax. Now, could MSFT acquire/bribe all its deep-pocketed natural adversaries in a patent fight? My opinion is not; they don't have _that_ much money, and the GPL limits their ability to engage in cross-licensing maneuvers. Still, this story makes me want to chant: "Hey, hey, ho, ho, software patents have got to go." I can't think of a damn thing s/w or business process patents have ever contributed to innovation. (Counterexamples welcome.)