I assume you are aware that the Spam filters that both GMail and HotMail use are configurable. Since you did not post those configurations, your statement lacks any validity for comparison purposes. From personal experience, I find both GMail and HotMail to be comparatively equal; with the major exception that HotMail doesn't just discard mail I post to mail forums. Furthermore, if you had not checked your mail in over a year, HotMail would have no way of learning what mail you consider Spam to begin with. In any case, HotMail isn't reading my email like Google (GMail) is.

I always felt that the supposed animosity between these two individuals was mostly a media created event. Neither one of them would have been as successful as they were without the influence of the other.

All this talk of fining a company 2% of its worldwide revenue is fine up to a point, but the point is how do you fine a group that gives it product away for free. Take FreeBSD (please) as an example. If they do not have a source of revenue, in other words they have a $0 based ROI, how can you fine them? Do you go after the individual authors and developers?

Immediately following the Year of Linux on Laptop.

Your subject says it all, "I'm honestly confused...". If this action was illegal as you so boldly claim then why have the companies that have capitulated to these requests not use your claim as a legal defense against paying any monies? Could it be that (1) these companies don't have the money to hire competent legal representation, or (2) you claim are bogus?

The signing of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) (1) is a common business practice. I have signed several in my career, both dealing with business practices and law settlements. There is nothing nefarious about the practice.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement

A pen and paper are more credible than OpenOffice. Seriously, I would be embarrassed to admit that I developed or used that piece of useless garbage. Only die-hard MS haters actually use it and even some of those are really closet "MS Office" users.

<quote>Will slashdot ever do away with the anonymous coward abilty to post? That would eliminate most of the trolls.</quote>

+1

<quote><p>There's no need to look for ulterior motives (like antitrust) for supporting Mac - all you have to do is look at SEC filings to see that the Microsoft's Mac Business Unit is quite profitable as a standalone entity. That's plenty of direct motive to keep supporting the platform.</p></quote>

Considering that they really have no competition, unless you are so foolish as to actually believe that OpenOffice or it latest sibling LibreOffice is actually any real competition, they cannot be anything but profitable. Perhaps if MS Office were still stuck at Office97 that might be true but certainly not today.

<quote><p>Oh come on. Even Apple only supports OS/X for blatantly self serving purposes.</p></quote>

True, but you will never get anyone here on Slashdot to publicly state that.

<quote><p>The way to address these patents IMO is to fight the corrupt system that gave them validity in the first place.</p></quote>

What you really mean is that you want someone else to do the hard work of development and then you or some other slimy socialist/fascist wants to use said development for your own nefarious purposes sans payment. Thank God that there are hard working people who want to develop or invent something with hopes of recovering their investment and making a profit rather than a group of scum bags who just want to feed off the sweat of others.

The fact is that their products are way ahead of the curve which is why KDE, Gnome and others are always playing catch-up.

So tell me, how many dollars has the *nix/BSD community contributed to society? Please list the hospitals they have build, the food they have supplied or other humanitarian deeds that they have preformed? I can see your problems with that question since the open-sore community is by and large a socialist/fascist group that expects to be serviced sans any reciprocity action of any kind.