Microsoft Patents Sudo? Learn the Real Fate of Sudo

Posted by Pubudu Kodikara on Nov 12, 2009 in General, Linux, News, Windows | 0 comments

Today when I was serfing the net, I saw a very interesting topic, which gains popularity like wildfire! It simply says that Microsoft have patented Sudo! This is a big blow to our Linux users, because we always use sudo in our day-today activities… its like we can’t survive without it! So… to clear-out any doubts lets see what going on…

First of all, this is the patent that the US Patent and Trademark Office have released United States Patent 7,617,530

Lets see what is a patent :

“A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office“ (Quoted from US Patent Department)

From the above patent the patent department have given the rights of the idea used for sudo to Microsoft! The documents describes the idea like this  :

“Systems and/or methods (“tools”) are described that enable a user to elevate his or her rights. In one embodiment, the tools present a user interface identifying an account having a right to permit a task in response to the task being prohibited based on a user’s current account not having that right. By so doing, the user may elevate his or her rights without having to search for or type in an account name.“

Actually what sudo does is give the administrative rights to a user who don’t have such rights! This is  a widely used feature in many Linux systems (Mostly in Ubuntu), people use this to install software on their system, update their system, etc But if this patent is right Linux can’t use sudo without getting the permission from Microsoft! Is that so? Lets finds out…

To obtain a patent your work should have new characteristic, should be unique. According to the patent document (as i understood) Microsoft have invented this idea in around 1997! But sudo was first implemented in 1980 according to this Document.

OK, these are the key facts…. the rest of the story is for you! You decide what’s right and what’s wrong! We are only the reporters who gives the news! (in other words, who starts the wild fire!)