Talk about dissonance. On the day Microsoft crowed that it was letting its employees contribute code to an open-source project, Joomla, it fired another shot at Linux.
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a patent agreement with phone maker HTC that provides "broad coverage" under Microsoft's patent portfolio for HTC devices running Google's Android.
Ironically, Microsoft stands to actually make a profit from Linux. HTC will pay Microsoft royalties for each phone it ships with Google's renegade operating system.
HTC is just the latest notch on Microsoft's belt. Amazon, Novell, Linspire, TurboLinux, and Xandros have all signed deals with Microsoft to protect themselves and their users against litigation over possible violations of Microsoft's patents by Linux. As with HTC, no patents were named.
Since 2007 Microsoft has claimed more than 235 of its patents are violated by Linux, but the company's never come out and said what those patents are. Instead, Microsoft's strategy is to pick off company after company that's implementing Linux. The approach benefits Microsoft, because it plays to the overall goal of monetizing its portfolio of patents.
Articulating that mood, Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin told The Reg: "Microsoft is once again demonstrating that it will attempt to use patents to muddy the waters about the viability of any competitive platform in order to maintain its Windows franchise."
Reacting to the HTC lock down, Zemlin told us: "Developers will see this news for what it is and choose to innovate on open platforms as opposed to developing on locked-down operating systems from patent-wielding dinosaurs." ®
OMG !!! Dakle, drzimo 250 patenata, necemo vam reci koji su, ako implementirate linux kernel u svoj proizvod - budite uvereni da cete nam platiti ! :(
Koji bre patenti, oni kao za UAC recimo ? Ma daj, muka mi je vise. Ovo je najgori, najpodmukliji, najodvratniji vid FUD-a. Neka kazu koji su patenti u pitanju bre, kernel je opensource, za ono za sta su u pravu i zasta drze patente - prioritet raspisati odgovarajuci kod koji ce zameniti tu funkcionalnost - za sta nisu u pravu, na sud mf's... Ako nije moguce raspisati kod - lepo world wide donacija, da ih lepo otplatimo i da se teraju u tri lepe...