However, I was there as an active industry watcher and commentator at the time, and it seems to me that the main focus of comments here are simple incredulity. I have seen very very few people responding with any kind of citation or reference or anything else.
I do not accept simply argument from authority. The founder of the GNOME project says "no" is not a counter-argument. [1] I am not sure that he was involved in GNOME 3. [2] He then became an MS employee and therefore has (literally) vested interest.
Denial is not refutation.
Furthermore, as I have said, if anyone involved publicly confessed to it, that would constitute an admission of liability.
I do think that being able to patent relatively minor UI stuff is absurd. I do think it was a total waste of resources, and I have said so, in print, for instance here: https://www.theregister.com/Print/2013/06/03/thank_microsoft...
However, I was there as an active industry watcher and commentator at the time, and it seems to me that the main focus of comments here are simple incredulity. I have seen very very few people responding with any kind of citation or reference or anything else.
I do not accept simply argument from authority. The founder of the GNOME project says "no" is not a counter-argument. [1] I am not sure that he was involved in GNOME 3. [2] He then became an MS employee and therefore has (literally) vested interest.
Denial is not refutation.
Furthermore, as I have said, if anyone involved publicly confessed to it, that would constitute an admission of liability.