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Microsoft takes Lindows fight to Sweden

malebolgia   on 11 December 2003 - 20:28 · 21 comments & 840 views

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Microsoft has opened another European front in its war to get Lindows.com to change its name. The company has won a temporary restraining order which prohibits Lindows.com from use of the marks "Lindows", "Lindows.com", and "LindowsOS" in Sweden, pending a later decision on alleged trademark infringement. The judgment in effect halts Lindows OS sales in the country. Microsoft last month threatened legal action against LindowsOS in the Netherlands. It has also started legal action in France against Lindows.com and a Lindows OS reseller, Lindows.com says. Microsoft is also taking action against Lindows in Belgium and Luxembourg, and has sent warning letters to resellers. But it told IDG News Service this week that it is not targeting individual LindowsOS resellers. A US court will decide next year if Lindows.com infringes Microsoft's Windows trademarks.

Now for some fighting talk from Michael Robertson, Lindows.com's boss: "Microsoft is using lawsuits as a battering ram to smash Linux, to prevent it from reaching retail stores. We're hopeful that the Judge will see Microsoft's true intentions are to sustain their monopoly and will grant Swedish computer users the same choices that global computer users are benefiting from. "Microsoft tried this identical legal manouvre in the US, attempting to block the growth of Linux with mainstream computer users. The US Courts denied their request multiple times and today more than 100 retailers sell Linux desktop and laptop computers, forcing Microsoft to compete in the United States for the first time in many years, giving consumers more choices and better prices."

News source: The Register


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#1 Fredde87 on 11 Dec 2003 - 21:11
nooo, no lindows to our poor country...
#2 PseudoRandomDragon on 11 Dec 2003 - 21:13
Microsoft REALLY wants Lindows to die. They really made it stronger rather than weaker. Lots of people would have never heard of Lindows if these lawsuits never happend. Not to say that these lawsuits aren't effecting Lindows in a bad way.

Even if you think Lindows isn't good, go Lindows, wh00t!
(5 replies) #3 brn2prgrm on 11 Dec 2003 - 21:40
Im sorry, but I have to hope Microsoft's lawsuits hold up and win. I am sick and tired of Michael Robertson's attitude towards this whole situation and his company. Not to mention the crappy software that they make. And also, charging for otherwise free software ala 'Click-and-RUn' is definitely not cool either.
#3.1 kairon on 11 Dec 2003 - 22:06
You said it!
#3.2 Chouzan on 11 Dec 2003 - 22:08
Amen...
#3.3 markjensen on 11 Dec 2003 - 22:12
QUOTE (#3.0)
charging for otherwise free software ala 'Click-and-RUn' is definitely not cool either

They are charging for the 'service' of pre-compiling and verifying, and providing their own repository to find them (granted, many other sources for the same proggies are out there).

My point is that you can't hate everyone who charges for packaging a Linux system. What about SUSE? RedHat? Do you count having to pay for burning an .iso to a CD-ROM?

It's all about freedom. Not everyone wants to FTP the source and compile directly - bypassing CDs and all.
#3.4 vetmalebolgia on 11 Dec 2003 - 22:12
I second that

One quote that he said in a past newspost really stuck in my head "God must have put here on Earth to tackle these big companies."
#3.5 insurektion on 12 Dec 2003 - 02:01
He is the devils warrior demon lol. He is about to get struck down lol.
(3 replies) #4 BTallack on 11 Dec 2003 - 22:49
I can fully understand Microsoft's motives. I've had customers come into my store who have thought that Lindows was a Microsoft product because of it's name. I explained that it wasn't, and they seemed rather perturbed about being mislead. Suse and Red Hat don't copy Windows name, so why can Lindows get away with it?
#4.1 PseudoRandomDragon on 11 Dec 2003 - 23:11
ya know, windows copies a lot of ideas too.
#4.2 BTallack on 12 Dec 2003 - 02:05
Oh sure they do, but they don't call their stuff Microsoft Finder or Microsoft Wordperfect. This is about the name, not the product.
#4.3 Wing on 12 Dec 2003 - 06:15
Microsoft Word and Microsoft Explorer?

HMM
#5 BigBoy on 12 Dec 2003 - 00:57
Lindows is still around?
#6 Z3r0 on 12 Dec 2003 - 03:50
I think it is unfair of microsoft to assert a trademark on the word windows, it's winter here and I would get very cold if they did this
But, I hope in the long term lindows dies out, it's not very good, it's basically other free linux software with a new interface and it doesn't offer what the developers originally stated, which is windows software running on linux, at least I don't think so? unless you install wine or whatever is around these days for most other linux builds.
Also I don't like the persecution factor that lindows are trying to use... i.e. they are trying to say microsoft are trying to stop them from distributing linux, but this is not the case, microsoft just doesn't like people ripping off their reputation
#7 DOGglee on 12 Dec 2003 - 04:24
go microsoft!!
(1 reply) #8 iomayho on 12 Dec 2003 - 08:29
i just don't understand why many of you have this negative attitude toward lindows...,
i suggest you try to os before you bash it.
if you've tried it and didn't like it, then fine, but why beign so negative on it..?
i mean, lindows is not that bad, considering it makes average users who are not techies able to run microsoft product on it, it makes linux much easier to use for the average user, that's why they charge for it.
#8.1 chilliadus on 12 Dec 2003 - 08:51
It's not the Lindows product is a crap per se (although it is not far from it in my view), but the way it sells free stuff to non tech-savvy users.
(1 reply) #9 Jugalator on 12 Dec 2003 - 09:47
"Microsoft is using lawsuits as a battering ram to smash Linux, to prevent it from reaching retail stores."

I can sometimes bash Microsoft, but not this time. They aren't using it to smash Linux (there are other ways to do this, like spreading FUD like SCO does). They're using it to smash Lindows for using a word slightly similar to Windows. But maybe it's just me and they can't see how their name would be similar.

*IF* Lindows honestly doesn't use it to ride on Microsoft's wave of success, why fight them and not just switch from Lindows to CoolOS or something else silly like that.

But I really think that if Microsoft's OS was named Aphrodite or whatever, they wouldn't call this OS "Lindows"....
#9.1 kingius on 12 Dec 2003 - 12:13
I agree
#10 Midnight Mick on 12 Dec 2003 - 20:00
It's got bugger all to do with the name "Lindows" can't you see that?!
It's just a good enough excuse for Microsoft to come in and bash one of it's closet competitors.
If it wasn't the name then Microsoft would try to find something else & you know it.
#11 aent on 14 Dec 2003 - 20:27
This is Microsoft's fault, they shouldn't have tried to trademark something so similiar to a generic term, "Window Manager" often shortened to "Windows". If I make a Window Manager called Windows based on the generic term, I should not get sued for a supposed trademark issue. Its a window manager, I'm just taking the name of what I'm making and using it.

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