You're right. It is pure supposition that CPTN would be set up to hurt Google. However, three of the four companies that are behind CPTN are engaged in lawsuits with Google or Google partners over Android.

However, the certain competition I was referring to was Linux and other open-source software like Postgres that competes directly with their product offerings.

Poe's Law for the win.

IANAL, but seeing as how the CPTN combines the patent portfolios four of the largest and most litigious technology firms and appears to exist to exclude certain competition from the market by using intellectual property, couldn't they be charged with a Section 1 violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act for operating as a cartel?

I'm not going to disagree. There are reasons to keep secrets, especially in war time. You don't want operational details or specs of new weapon systems leaking. But the reaction to the cable leak has been over the top. From what I have seen so far, it looks like a lot of the cables are idle chatter and rumors passed on through official channels. It's also nice to know that the Saudis are pushing for war with Iran, something that shouldn't have been kept secret as elements of our government keep pushing for another war in that region.

Nothing says "land of the free, home of the brave" than a quitter comparing a journalistic outfit that leaks embarassing data that the US and others don't want to be revealed to a theocratic government that opposes most fundamental freedoms. And yet, her base will eat this up.

I think Microsoft already thought of that. It's called Alt-Tab.

Please tell me that I'm not the only person who thought about LCARS from Star Trek when watching the video. I can see that sort of utility in an industrial environment where your input device changes based on the screen your viewing.

AMD has a place in Dell's Enterprise line as well. The Optiplex 740 was an AMD only model that was available for 2+ years. It was replaced by the Optiplex 580 line. My former employer used this line exclusively for all desktop PCs because they couldn't justify the extra cost for running Office and connecting to Terminal Servers. Then again, they also refused to look at thin-clients because they couldn't lease them....

Also, the "bad will" will not ensure that they have no future. Microsoft continues to do well in their core segments - Windows, Office, MS Exchange, Sharepoint, and SQL Server. Yeah, they've taken their lumps with Xbox, Kin, Windows Mobile, etc...but they are still sitting on a pile of cash and they are still making a profit.

What will eventually kill Microsoft is 1)a better Office Suite (sorry, OpenOffice isn't there yet), 2)Mass Adaption of Linux on the desktop, and 3)Open-Source replacements for Active Directory and Exchange.

If Microsoft were to drop their Home Entertainment, Mobile, and Internet divisions, they'd be cutting out a lot of cruft that is dragging the company down.

First off...I'm not distrusting OSS solutions. As you can see, my scenario was very specific to the products that Oracle sells - high-end databases and Line-of-Business applications. Many times, these will be installed on Linux servers, so they are partially OSS.

That said, many Open Source ERP systems run MySQL as a backend. Would you trust that for a mission-critical 24x7 5 9's availability system that gets hammered throughout the day?

As for Stock Exchanges, which ones run on an entirely open source platform? If you say London, you'd be wrong. The database that runs their new system from MilleniumIT (which has yet to be implemented) is Oracle.

GP is correct. That is just Oracle's business model, and it won't kill them off. It may hurt them in the future, but they can limp along like Microsoft for a long time.

The businesses that can afford, and need, Oracle's products are 1)very large, 2)prefer to pay for support contracts, and 3)will not find an open-source equivalent. How many open-source databases can scale to Oracle database? How many open source ERP and/or HRMS packages can operate on the same scale as JDE and Peoplesoft? Would you trust some open-source ERP package running with MySQL backend to handle a million+ daily DB queries and transactions in a multi-site manufacturing environment?

I see what you did there.

Sorry. Poor choice of words. I should have said dying network, not dying technology.

Do people still use ICQ? I thought it was a dying technology in 2000 when I first signed up for it as it was being supplanted by AIM, Yahoo, and MSN (which have been supplanted in many ways by Facebook).

Dust off your resume and start updating it. You probably won't get more money or a new title unless you threaten to leave. At that point, they'll look to replace you anyway, so you might as well find a new job.