Posted 8:50 AM

Save us from the Bully

Microsoft continues to play the heavy as the 800-pound bully searches for courts in which to persecute Lindows.com while at the same time throwing up delay after stalling tactic to keep its US trial from starting. While US judges have been sympathetic to Lindows arguments those in Europe have almost all sided with Microsoft.

Evidently it's Redmond's plan to launch so many suits in so many different venues in the hope of bankrupting the San Diego open-source startup.

This could have the same outcome as its heavy-handed approach in the mikerowesoft incident - in which Bill Gates threatened to financially ruin a Canadian teenager - which blew up when not only the usual Anyone-But-Microsoft crew but also the general public overwhelmingly castigated the Bellvue Bullies.

Yes, Microsoft has the money, the connections and the lawyers to sue Lindows in almost every country in the world which would be ruinous for Michael Robertson and his cheerful band of propeller heads. But, just as Martha Stewart found out that being able to do something doesn't mean you ought to do it, so too should the world step up to Microsoft and announce that their conduct is gross and arrogant and people just won't take it any more.