Re: [tlug] Novel embraces Microsoft

[<burlingk@example.com>]

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 13:34:55 +0900
> From: "Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>
> Subject: Re: [tlug] Novel embraces Microsoft
> To: "Tokyo Linux Users Group" <tlug@example.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<d8fcc0800611052034l41acbf8al40bc6384903ece75@example.com>
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> 
> On 06/11/06, Trevor Tinker <ttinker@example.com> wrote:
> 
> > If you want to use a Linux back end in a M$ network then 
> the "pay-for"
> > Novell version of SAMBA will be the way to go.
> > All other Linux flavours that run SAMBA will become the 
> target of joing
> > M$-Novell litigation.
> 
> How would litigation work in this case? i.e. what legal grounds would
> MS/Novell have for taking the Samba developers to court?
> 
> -Josh

Could they really target SAMBA without targeting all programmers in general?
I have not looked at the source code for SAMBA, but does it implement anything file system related directly in the code, or does it make calls to the OS to manipulate the file system like most programs do?

Basically, does it try to unravel the intricacies of NTFS, or does it select an area on the hard drive as it's home, and use calls such as open, close, read, and write to manipulate those files?

Unless SAMBA directly bypasses the OS to access the file system, or MS or Novell have a broad blanket patent that reads something like "programs that make files accessible over a network," or something similar.

If SAMBA does come under attack, and those attacks have any real effect (If the developers give in to pressure and fold that does not count.), then that could count disaster for pretty much anyone that wants to write a program to run under windows period, or any OS for that matter.

Think about it.  How many programs are there that let you access files over a network?  More importantly, how many programs are there that have no interaction with the file system?