RE: Help: Microsoft patent covers package download and upgrade
that's not the sequence that dselect and co. use though, as with debian, the
client computer determines which packages are needed by getting the lists
first. This patent doesn't have any bearing on Debian since the sequence
and methodology is different. Although the title of the patent may seem
suspicious, the crux of the matter is that it's quite a bit different of a
method than we use, so all is well ;-)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: arto.astala@nokia.com [mailto:arto.astala@nokia.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 12:05 PM
> To: debian-doc@lists.debian.org; debian-legal@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Help: Microsoft patent covers package download and upgrade
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Microsoft was recently granted a patent that covers a core
> part of Debian, and probably Red Hat too. (If you have
> contacts in RH you can forward this, their contact page
> seemed a bit slow in retrieval.) (If you forward this to
> public place, any other than debian-doc and debian-legal,
> please drop my name and company from mail body and headers.)
>
> The project I'm working in has some interest in automatic
> SW upgrade, so I _might_ be able to persuade Nokia to take
> interest in this patent. To do it I need some historical
> data that shows that the invention was known art at that
> time.
>
> Below is some data on the patent and some historical data
> I dug out from Debian web site. It seems to show that some
> time between -95 and -97 dselect supported upgrading from
> internet. If 0.93R6 already did it I'd be happy. In any
> case I'd appreciate a man page or dselect-beginner.txt or
> something similar from first release supporting ftp access
> method, with release date. (If rpm did it before Nov 97
> that would also be nice to know.)
>
> MS patent seems to be somewhat limited by not having any
> info on versions, dependencies, conflicts etc. but that
> is to be expected, I suppose.
>
> t.aa
> arto.astala@nokia.com
>
> -----
>
> Filed Nov 14. 1997, granted Oct 26, 1999
> US5974454: Method and system for installing and updating
> program module components
>
> Abstract
>
> Installing and updating a software program module component.
> A determination is made whether the current date is on or
> after a date stored in a registry key on a computer. If the
> current date is on or after the date stored in the registry
> key, then a computer transmits a database query via the
> Internet to a database server. At the database server, a
> determination is made whether an upgrade package for the
> software program module component is available, such as by
> performing a database lookup. If an upgrade package for the
> software program module component is available, then an
> upgrade package message is sent from the database server to
> the computer. At the computer, a determination is made whether
> the user wants to download the upgrade package. If so, then
> an upgrade package query is sent by the computer via the
> Internet to a package server. At the package server, in
> response to receiving the upgrade package query, the upgrade
> package is retrieved and sent over the Internet to the computer.
> The upgrade package is then installed on the computer to update
> the software program module component.
>
> Claim 1.
> A computer-implemented method for updating a software
> program module component stored on a computer, the method
> comprising the steps of:
>
> a) determining whether the current date is on or after a date
> stored at the computer;
>
> b) if the current date is on or after the date stored at the
> computer, then sending a database query from the computer
> to a database server;
>
> c) responsive to the database query, determining at the
> database server whether an upgrade package for the software
> program module component is available;
>
> d) if an upgrade package for the software program module
> component is available, then sending an upgrade package
> message from the database server to the computer;
>
> e) responsive to the upgrade package message, sending an
> upgrade package query from the computer to a package
> server; and
>
> f) in response to receiving the upgrade package query,
> retrieving the upgrade package at the package server
> and sending the upgrade package to the computer.
>
> Further claims cover e.g. doing the upgrade and updating
> the registry (=dpkg database).
>
> -----
> Here are the results of a quick search in history:
>
> Debian 0.93R6 (November 1995): dselect appears. This will be the
> last a.out Debian release; there are now about 60 developers.
>
> Debian 1.1 Buzz (June 1996): This appears to be the first Debian
> release with a code name (taken, like all others, from the movie
> Toy Story); this is probably because it was also the first release
> made after Bruce Perens took over leadership of the Project from
> Ian Murdock. This release was fully ELF, used Linux kernel
> 2.0, and contained 474 packages.
>
> (Debian 1.3.1?)
> Dselect is used to select just which packages (from ~1100) you
> wish to install. It will be run for you during the install and as
> it is a very powerful and somewhat complex thing, some knowledge
> of it before hand will not go astray. It will step you through
> the package installation process as follows:
>
> Choose the access method to use.
> Update list of available packages, if possible.
> Request which packages you want on your system.
> Install and upgrade wanted packages.
> Configure any packages that are unconfigured.
> Remove unwanted software.
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-doc-request@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
> listmaster@lists.debian.org
>
Reply to: