Yesterday fortune magazine published a story about Microsoft patents claims. According to them, Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents while other free software -- including Open Office -- infringes on an additional 193.
Today there is a small twist from evil empire – now it says it won’t sue Linux users. Microsoft does not plan to take a page from The SCO Group and sue users of the open source operating system, a senior company official said Monday:
We're not litigating. If we wanted to we would have done so years ago...Instead, Microsoft said it wants to create more arrangements that mirror the company's deal with Linux distributor Novell.
Hmm.. Microsoft will keep spreading FUD against Linux and OSS. Today’s move is nothing but some sort of PR stunt to recover from yesterday's bad publicity, IMHO
Microsoft Won't Sue Linux Users, Company Exec Says
On a related note Network World has published top 10 things Microsoft loves and hates about open source:
Over the years, Microsoft has had some pretty harsh words (and actions) for the open source community in general and for Linux in particular. And with news this week that the company reportedly wants open source software users to pay royalties on 235 alleged patent violations, the relationship is obviously changing. We take a look at five ways Microsoft is embracing open source or Linux and five ways it is doing to battle against those same forces.
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There is also the distinct possibility that thorugh these deals, Microsoft will tie up the high level portion of the organization and keep them from creating work arounds with the patents when Microsoft unleashes its brigade of patent lawyers. Then it is a matter of money and desperation to keep the courts to rule that Microsoft is not a distribution vendor by the wording of the GPL v3. Corporate crimes, which would lead to that kind of ruling, are the most violent and well planned of all forms of organized crime.