Re: Linux in Mondays NY Times
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Johan_Myr=E9en?= (jem@vistacom.fi)
Wed, 8 Jul 1998 19:24:28 +0300 (EET DST)
On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, John Levon wrote:
> > On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> >
> > > Worse that that. If you buy any Intel processor since the 8086, US$5.00
> > > of the cost is a license fee paid to Micro$haft. Micro$haft claims
> > > ownership to the "Intel Architecture", i.e., what used to be called
> > > the "IBM-PC/AT". They "purchased" the rights to this design from IBM
> > > sometime in the early '70s, waited about 10 years for major developments
> > > to be made by Intel and others, then threatened a suit. The settlement
> > > was a 5.00 per processor fee to be paid by the end-user.
> Will this also appy directly or indirectly to chips bought in the UK ? I
> swore I wouldn't give them any money ever.
An 8086 costs the equivalent of USD 7, including 22% sales
tax, in the local electronics shop here. If Bill G gets 5
dollars, and 1.30 goes to the tax man, that would leave 70
cents...
How could Microsoft acquire the rights to something that
didn't even exist in the early '70s? The 8086 itself is a late
'70s chip, and the IBM-PC (the original, not the AT, which
came later) must have come after that.
Johan Myreen
jem@iki.fi
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