Patents aren't all bad. I do not think any developer should be able to freely leach off of the innovation of market leaders. I think that's wrong. Think harder if you want a better product, IMO.

And there's nothing wrong with releasing freeware as closed source. People have been doing it since the 80s. I don't know how anyone can post/speak as if it's something they've never heard of. Get with the program. Most people aren't suprised by this cause I'm sure about 80% of us have used Freeware Closed Source appliations more than enough (depends? Process Monitor? MagicDisc? and thousands of others).

Why doesn't Microsoft just release the Visual Studio 2008 source code (and the 2010 too), since there are "freeware" Express Editions.

/facepalm

I think, especially IRT software development, European companies are not great in establishing top positioning in their respective markets/domains. I can see why they'd like to get rid of patents.