Microsoft in patent deal with Amazon to use Linux

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

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I did a quick search and didn't see this posted anywhere else.
From zdnet blogs:

Last year Microsoft sued GPS maker TomTom, but even this actual lawsuit didn’t help us clearly determine if, and to what scale, Linux infringes on patents held by Microsoft. But this doesn’t stop FUDbeing profitable, as Amazon has now entered into a “patent deal” with the Redmond giant.
The deal covers both Amazon’s Kindle product as well as the company’s use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft has maintained that many implementations of Linux infringe on its patents and has signed numerous licensing deals that cover Linux with both companies that sell Linux-based software and those that use the operating system in their hardware.
​
So not only is Amazon paying Microsoft to use Linux, Amazon is also licensing its own technology to the company … just to use Linux.
Click to expand...
As most of us know, MS are quick to denounce Linux and to spread FUD about the masses of patents it allegedly infringes. Of course, they won't say what patents those are. If that information was made public, and verified, FOSS devs could simply rewrite some code, issue updates and write out the questionable code completely - leaving MS with no FUD machine to leverage money in 'patent deals' from companies the world over.

I'm surprised at Amazon though. "You're using FREE software, and you owe us money. We won't tell you how or why, but you just do, OK?". "Um... OK." :o What a crock. AFAIK only the US recognises software patents anyway; the UK certainly doesn't. As the article illustrates, Amazon has basically handed over not only cash but access to all its OWN patents as part of the deal. All I can think to say is 'lulwut?'.

Full story here. Your thoughts?
 
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There must be more to this story, a corporation as large as Amazon, one of the largest if not the largest e-tailors in the world, would not willingly give money to MS for something like this.
Not without extensive research into the matter.
 
Microsoft is a big scary group to **** off, it may well be cheaper for Amazon to give them money now than to make enemies of them.

It's not really surprising that microsoft is trying to darken the name of linux in peoples minds. After all, for the user who just wants a web browser, linux has the massive advantage of largely not caring if you click the pretty buttons. For someone in an office, it's nice to run software which doesn't crash. For servers it's hardly an argument. The major drawbacks to linux these days are gaming (wine will get there in the end), open office being worse than microsoft office but I believe wine has just about got this one down now, and cad software which most people haven't heard of.

On the bright side, some computers coming with debian derivatives preinstalled instead of windows appears to have scared microsoft into writing decent software. I'm told 7 is much better than the recent efforts. So it's not all bad.
 
I heard that this was something to do with the FAT filesystem which the kindle uses because if it used an open source one it wouldn't plug'n'play on Windows.
 
dangerstat said:
Hmm... there might be something in that.
Click to expand...

Effectively, M$ holds a patent on drivers which can read and write to it's FAT filesystem format.

Tomtom caved and paid up for their use of the driver, then the open source community declared that the driver is in fact 2 drivers, one reading, one writing.
 
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