Package management patented?

[Keith Mastin]

> "A company called Bluecurrent has been awarded a patent for updating
> software over the internet. Yes, it's true. This is real. It sounds like
> a joke. Almost every software since the beginning of the internet has
> used the internet to update itself. It shouldn't be difficult to prove
> prior art but the very fact that you would have to is laughable."

Your description is a bit off. They want to use the web to store all the
data on machine A and move it to machine B. Looks like they're gearing up
to do remote installs of your desktop to your granny's desktop located in
Boise Idaho or something like that. This is not just an upgrade or install
over the web process, it's more of a ghost process. Symantec should be
pleased...

They didn't make any claims to fame for using certain or specific
protocols (although www is generally thought of as http, but the term
world wide web is generic and broad enough to get away using that term).

M$ should love these guys.. now they can offer full mirrors of client
computer located on their servers, and when that big ole blue screen of
death raises it's ugly head you just give a call to M$ and bingo! they
rebuild your system from the image stored in Redmond.

Let's just hope it works as well as all things M$. :)

> Link:
>
> http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week42/OG/html/1275-3/US06636857-20031021.html
>
> Look out Mandrake and Debian, urpmi and apt-get may have to be licensed
> from these creative geniuses... ;-)


-- 
Keith Mastin
BeechTree Information Technology Services Inc.
Toronto, Canada
(416)429 9304
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