Please welcome Amazon.com to the Borg Cube

I missed this in the hubbub of my planning for the HP Infrastructure Tech Day: Amazon.com has joined the list of companies paying tribute to Redmond for Linux’s infractions into Microsoft’s IP.

Welcome to Unimatrix 01, Amazon.com!

Resistance is futile.

Sorta Related

• TurboLinux joins the Continuum
• No thanks for Microsoft’s fig leaf?

Thanks for the news, Mary Jo.

Comments

[Will]

"paying tribute to Redmond for Linux's infractions into Microsoft's IP"

That will have weight just as soon as Microsoft actually discloses what those infractions actually are. Microsoft has been banging that drum since at least 2006, but have never stated what precisely is being infringed, and until they do, their claims mean nothing. About time to put up or shut up, I say.

[John Obeto]

If the claims were specious, why would over 600 companies pay tribute?

Think about it!

[Will]

In that case, let's hear from some of those companies about what was infringed and needed to be paid tribute on.

I believe Mark Shuttleworth had a few words about Microsoft's behavior here::

“Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won’t say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: “It’s an unsafe neighborhood, why don’t you pay me 20 bucks and I’ll make sure you’re okay,” that’s illegal. It’s racketeering.”

–Mark Shuttleworth

Again, if these infringements actually exist and are such a big deal, why won't Microsoft simply reveal and specify them so that they may be removed from Linux's code?

[John Obeto]

"Again, if these infringements actually exist and are such a big deal, why won't Microsoft simply reveal and specify them so that they may be removed from Linux's code?",

Because it is more lucrative to bludgeon infringers with proof after they commit themselves.

Sucks, but that is what I would expect them to do, in order to earn more Latinum for Microsoft shareholders.

[Will]

The problem is that neither you nor I know exactly what all of these deals that Microsoft have been pursuing actually entail, since everything appears to be kept under NDAs, and usually only Microsoft speaks on the matter. That said, I don't see Red Hat ever entering such a deal with Microsoft, and right now, they don't just use Linux, they are enterprise Linux, or at least the face of it and the biggest company in that space.

[John Obeto]

Very true.

I applaud Red Hat's stance, which leads me to believe that the (supposedly?) infringed-upon patents/IP might not be in the Linux kernel per se, but in the products around it.

With the large number of lazy companies/dev teams out there, this might just be the case.