Re: Draining the Swamp: A Technical User's Experience

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 08May2002 01:15PM (+0100), Alan Cox wrote:
> > [1] For example, have you heard about Apple's ZeroConf initiative?
> > This is a setup where computers connected on a private LAN that's not
> > on the global Internet will automatically form their own private
> > network with hostnames and everything, and publish their services. If
> > you have ever been at a conference desperately trying to copy a file
> > from one laptop to another with nothing to use but a crossover cable,
> > you'll understand how much better this is than the current Linux
> > approach to the problem. :-)
> 
> Unfortunately it seems to have the usual "and while we were at it we
> US patented all sorts of prior art" problem.

Really? I had the impression that Apple was pushing these things as
proposed IETF standards, so the patent thing seems surprising. I think
Apple definitely wants this to work with non-Apple computers too. Can
you give me more specific info about the patents in question, so I can
look into it with people at Apple?

Regards,

Maciej