Posted on 03/05/2009 8:21:14 AM PST by ShadowAce
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Microsoft's suit against TomTom, which alleged infringement of eight of its patents - including three that relate to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel. I wrote there that this seemed part of a larger attack on Linux, and not just one on TomTom, as Microsoft nonetheless insisted.
This called forth a fair amount of disagreement, so I was glad to come across this post on Harald Welte's blog:
[MS] claim that this lawsuit has no relation whatsoever to Linux, and they're only targeting TomTom's specific implementation of Linux. I have actually reviewed the TomTom kernel sources a number of times during the last couple of years as part of gpl-compliance reviews. I can tell you, there is nothing "TomTom specific" in their FAT FS code. It is the plain fat/msdos/vfat file system like in every kernel.org kernel.That seems pretty definitive. The question now is what Microsoft hopes to achieve by bringing this lawsuit. A fascinating explanation is provided as a comment to my original post from Jeremy Allison. He's one of the leaders of the Samba project, and knows more than most about how Microsoft thinks and operates, since he's been heavily involved in the EU's efforts to get interoperability information from the company. Here's what he wrote:
What people are missing about this is the either/or choice that Microsoft is giving Tom Tom.It isn't a case of cross-license and everything is ok. If Tom Tom or any other company cross licenses patents then by section 7 of GPLv2 (for the Linux kernel) they lose the rights to redistribute the kernel *at all*.
Microsoft has been going around and doing these patent cross licensing deals with companies under NDA's so they never come to light for *years*.
That was the whole point of the Novell deal - Microsoft lawyers finally thought they'd found a way to *publicly* do these cross licensing deals and get around the GPLv2, but the GPLv3 put paid to that.
Tom Tom are the first company to publicly refuse to engage in this ugly little protection racket, and so they got sued. Had Tom Tom silently agreed to violate the GPL, as so many others have, then we'd only hear about a vague "patent cross licensing deal" just like the ones Microsoft announces with other companies.
Make no mistake, this is intended to force Tom Tom to violate the GPL, or change to Microsoft embedded software.
So it turns out that the TomTom lawsuit goes to the heart of Microsoft's attacks on Linux, and its effort to stop people using it in embedded systems – an increasingly popular option, and one, therefore, that is increasingly problematic for Microsoft.
Starve the Beast — don’t buy Microsoft products. Today I’m online and posting here after booting up from a Puppy Linux live CD.
Haven't missed them at all.
Buy a good compass. Learn how to read a map and tell time.
It may be a race between starvation and suicide...
I thought M$ already lost its grip on the FAT patent...
That's a good point. I think I remember something about them losing a patent lawsuit against Samba as well.
anti--what do you know about this point?
They have bought their own press. Businesses were not deploying Vista for a number of reasons, none of which, at this time, seem to be answered in 7.
So what do we have, 50% or better of the corporate customer base may well be running XP as much as it can, especially on desktops, 10 years after it's roll out and looking to move on with nothing in the pipe from MS worth consideration...
XP sucks too though. It’s a time waster, not a time saver.
Been MS-Free since 1993.
If at least one team somewhere can get it's act together with support/ease of use and familiarity, there is a possible entry point forming to really take on MS..
Well, until some one comes out with a widely accepted and cost effective replacement for Microsoft Windows that’s what we have.
Everyone tries to use the lawsuit rout against MS (Yes, they do the same in defense)instead of creating a cost effective competitor that’s easy for the average person to install and use.
Yes there are many Linux Distros out there that can do everything MS does, but the drivers are often shaky or non-existent for allot of hardware, and the software is great but it’s also hard to install, uninstall, or use some times.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Linux, I run OpenSuse at home on my laptop, but in the end it’s still an MS world until some one finds a way to beat them in the market and not the court room.
It’s good to see that M$ is getting exposed on moves like this.
I’ve been virtually M$-free since mid-2007 - switched to Ubuntu Linux. I convinced my parents to switch around this past Christmas.
My Garmin works that way--though why the companies can't just download them through the satellite I don't know.
Software patents are stoopid and EVIL!
I would hazard a guess that the TomTom is using flash disk cards to supply map databases that can be updated by swapping out a card. Most cards of that variety come formatted with a FAT FS. I have embedded Linux systems that have a USB port. I include the FAT FS driver so I can connect a "thumb drive" to collect log data or exchange software when there isn't a network connection available.
It wasn’t FAT, but the long file name extensions of FAT32 that’s used in practically everything now. I remember at least one of the several patents covering FAT32 was declared invalid, but later reinstated. There was also something about an EFI spec where Microsoft gave permission to use the patents, but I don’t know whether that clears OS vendors to implement FAT32 overall.
This could mean war, but Microsoft has already signed patent deals with two of the richest Linux vendors, Novell and Red Hat, so the biggest players with the biggest bank to fight probably won’t be in it.
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