Stories about: Ford Motor

Microsoft's threat to sue open source software users who violate its patents could be hardest on startups and smaller companies unable to take on the software giant, business and legal observers say.

Users who helped spur the growth of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) programming techniques through grass-roots efforts welcomed last week's news that several top vendors have joined forces to promote it to the open-source community.

If purchasing software were as straightforward as buying a car, users would not have to think twice about the risk of intellectual property lawsuits.

De Bortoli Wines is staging a nationwide rollout of Linux terminal replacements and plans to move over to new Linux desktops by the end of 2005.

The chances of a user being sued for intellectual property (IP) infringement related to software usage are slim, industry observers say. But that may change, as some companies hoard patents for the express purpose of using them to extract money from sellers and users of software.

With The SCO Group Inc.'s licensing issues roiling in the background and Microsoft demonstrating a Linux alternative, IT professionals aren't distracted and are expected to do more than just window-shop this week at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York.

Ford Motor Co. in the US is poised to join the ranks of large corporations that are exploring the use of Linux to replace some of their Unix-based servers, company officials confirmed last week.