Those wacky guys at my favorite company are at it again, this time from Great Britain. Everyone’s favorite monkey-dancin’, chair-throwing CEO, Steve Ballmer, was bellowing about the alleged patent violations the Linux community is guilty of infringing on. Funny thing is he called out RedHat specifically, and he did it from a country where the Lanham Act, which prevents people from making unfounded claims that harm another business’ reputation, couldn’t touch him. Very brave, Mr. Ballmer. Why don’t you come back to the US and spout that same geyser of crap for everyone to hear? If you’re so confident about the patent violations, get your ass back to the country where RedHat resides and put your money where your mouth is. And while you’re at it, why don’t you STOP GRANDSTANDING, STOP FUDDING, AND SHOW US WHERE THE INFRINGEMENTS ARE!?

It never ceases to amaze me how disgusted I can become with Microsoft. I encourage everyone to look at free alternatives to their crappy, bloated software. Check out Open Office for your word-processor/spreadsheet/chart packages/etc, use Firefox for your web-browser, and if you’re feeling brave and a little computer savvy, investigate a Linux distribution like Ubuntu. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed. And if you’re already convinced, take a look at the Sue Me First, Microsoft petition; add your name and a comment and issue Mr. Ballmer your own challenge.

Steve, you get a Heads-Up Award for your stupid and cowardly mudslinging. Please don’t throw a chair at me…you’ve earned it!

I’ve had some thoughts for a while now about a self-contained firewall appliance built from some sort of embedded-like hardware and Linux. I’ve used custom firmware distributions like SveaSoft and DD-WRT for several years now and I’ve been very happy with the results. However, I’ve found them somewhat limiting in various ways, especially in regards to the hardware they’re used to running on. I also have a lot of concerns about the SveaSoft business model, apparent GPL violations, and the way the lead developer treats people who disagree with him. While I’m impressed with the technical merit of both firmwares, I wanted to do something that IS based on GPL, free-as-in-beer software, wasn’t limited by the hardware provided by Linksys/Cisco models, would allow me to experiment with some different things easily, and…well…look plain cool.