I was there too - hell I was using newsgroups when Miguel posted his Gnome post. And I'd note Miguel says the same thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=

I was there too - hell I was using newsgroups when Miguel posted his Gnome post. And I'd note Miguel says the same thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32258035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32258035 Just because The Register was posting something it didn't make it true then, and still isn't. The Register always posted random anti-MS scapegoating articles, and it was nonsense then and remains nonsense now. The article you post at the end of the linked article is typical ignorant nonsense. Patents don't cover visual appearance - Design Patents can, but they are very specific and MS didn't have them. So it's both ignorant of IP law, and of the history of the projects.