Bill Hilf is the General Manager of Platform Strategy at Microsoft. Lately people in high positions at Microsoft (like Mr. Hilf and Steve Ballmer) seem to be making outrageous statements with regard to the company, the state of software, and technology in general. Mr. Hilf recently made the following statements on the apparent death of free software and Linux
(source: http://www.bangkokpost.com)

The Free Software movement is dead. Linux doesn’t exist in 2007. Even Linus has got a job today.

[…]

They are full-time employees, with 401K stock options. Some work for IBM or Oracle. What does that mean? It means that Linux doesn’t exist any more in 2007. There is no free software movement. If someone says Linux is about Love, Peace and Harmony, I would tell them to do their research. There is no free software movement any more. There is big commercial [firms] like IBM and there is small commercial [firms] like Ubuntu

Let’s lay out the premises in Mr. Hilf’s logical argument and see if we can’t disprove it.

1. Linux is free software.
2. People who contribute to/champion Linux have jobs.
3. Contributors to/champions of free software cannot have jobs.
4. Free software is dead.
5. Linux is dead.

Once again I refer you to the defintion of free software. Here are the finer points:

[…]

Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms.

[…]

In Mr. Hilf’s argument, premise #3, which is implicit, is false. Free software has nothing to do with the software developer. Not his or her state of employment, religion, height, weight, sexual orientation, nothing. You can pay someone to write free, open source software any amount you like. If it satisfies the four freedoms defined in the definition of free software then it is free software.

Mr Hilf’s statements come right on time for Microsoft to announce that Linux infringes on 235 of it’s patents. Microsoft has yet to actually release which patents those are, likely for fear that people would laugh at them, but possibly for fear that the pendulum is swinging back to other way in terms of the legitimacy of software patents. This latest action may point out just how ridiculous it is to patent an algorithm - what a program is - and bring about yet another paradigm shift through litigation in favor of free software, now that a good outspoken minority seem ready to undo the web of proprietary software that monopolistic-Microsoft has spent much of it’s existence weaving.