Microsoft yanks Custom XML from Word, offers OEM patch | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft yanks Custom XML from Word, offers OEM patch

computerworld.com

19 pointsKWD8 comments

Neither articles linked in this thread actually say /what/ the patent was. Obviously XML namespaces aren't patented, so what was the patent infringed upon?

Or as Paul McDougall at InformationWeek proudly proclaims:

Microsoft Word Gets Facelift

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/s...

But you don't need to read the article. There is nothing in there about cosmetic improvements.

Up until the news broke, I didn't even know this functionality existed for Word. Doesn't InfoPath have the same functionality too, or is it slightly different? I see no mention of InfoPath in any of the articles.

I don't a problem with Software Patents per se, but I definitely have a problem with what the USPTO considers to be novel/original/non-obvious

This seems like it would be a good time for OEMs to start breaking the hard link to Microsoft products, like bundling the installation media and not pre-installing it, for starters. They could even go one further and not pre-install all the other crap that typically comes on a new PC, problem solved...

Is this just an anti-microsoft rant?

I don't see your justification. OEMs update the software that they ship all of the time. Microsoft products (i.e. Office, Windows, etc...) are typically the things consumers want, not bonzai buddy or whatever other spyware they put on the machines. I don't see what the latter have to do with the former.

Pre-loading wanted software is a nice convenience, if you don't want that then order the machine with FreeDOS as your OS instead (I know at a minimum that Dell offers this).

I prefer my computers to be as Microsoft-free as possible, but mostly on the software side. Their keyboards and mice are outstanding.

As for software, there is no need to chose between Windows and FreeDOS. You know, OpenSolaris, BSD and Linux are all fine options (and I regard them as much better choices than Windows)

They install the various crap on machines because it

1) gives them revenue 2) allows them to differentiate

They probably will not stop doing this, as it's not like Microsoft is forcing them to.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com