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[News] Linux is Kicking Apple's Behind, So Microsoft and Apple Join Forces with Software Patents and Extortion

  • Subject: [News] Linux is Kicking Apple's Behind, So Microsoft and Apple Join Forces with Software Patents and Extortion
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:46:05 +0000
  • Followup-to: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • User-agent: KNode/4.3.1
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On their last foot now...

âFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.â

		--Mahatma Gandhi

Apple's HTC patent lawsuit is a bluff

,----[ Quote ]
| Apple has good reasons to fear Android. In 
| the three months from December to February, 
| Android's US smartphone subscriber share 
| shot up from 2.8 percent to 7.1 percent. 
| Worldwide, in 2009, Android smartphone 
| market share -- based on sales -- rose from 
| 0.5 percent to 3.9 percent, according to 
| Gartner (The first Android phone, the T-
| Mobile G1, shipped in late 2008). Last 
| month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt asserted 
| that 60,000 Android handsets are shipping 
| by the day.
| 
| All this circles back to my claim that the 
| patent lawsuit is a bluff. My reasoning:
| 
| 1) Apple chose HTC, not Google. There is no 
| immediate risk to any patent claims against 
| HTC. Since the real claims are against 
| Google, Apple may find the court -- or even 
| the ITC -- reluctant to rule against an 
| Android licensee in good faith. There is 
| perceived risk, but none in the short term, 
| which is long enough for a united Android 
| front to do market damage against iPhone -- 
| particularly in emerging markets.
| 
| 2) Apple filed against HTC and not other 
| licensees. Apple had its chance to take on 
| Android licensees, choosing instead to go 
| after one.
`----

http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apples-HTC-patent-lawsuit-is-a-bluff/1268597261

Google's Open Web vs Apple's vendor lock-in

,----[ Quote ]
| Who will win the battle? I think it will be 
| a couple of years in the making. However, 
| there is a reason that Eric Schmidt left 
| Appleâs board of directors last year. There 
| is a reason that Google is pushing into 
| countless new markets and bringing products 
| into widespread beta as quickly as 
| possible. Google and Apple both know: he 
| who controls the screen controls the Web 
| (and all of the money that entails). I have 
| to say that Iâm rooting for Googleâs open 
| approach that welcomes a wide array of 
| hardware and software. Vendor lock-in isnât 
| good for consumers, content providers, or 
| developers. Appleâs HTC lawsuit was the 
| first shot across the bow. Whatâs next? And 
| when will Google take the gloves off?
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1821

Apple is Open Source's sworn enemy

http://www.techeye.net/mobile/apple-is-open-sources-sworn-enemy

Open Source Developers Pick Android Over iPhone

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3870986/Open+Source+Developers+Pick+Android+Over+iPhone.htm

What Is the Top Mobile Platform for Open Source Developers?

,----[ Quote ]
| Mobile platforms like Apple's iPhone and 
| Google's Android have become a key focus 
| for open source developers. And the trend 
| is only increasing, though new research has 
| found that over the course of the last 
| year, there has been a shift in which 
| mobile platform has the most open source 
| development activity.
`----

http://www.developer.com/features/article.php/3870906/What-Is-the-Top-Mobile-Platform-for-Open-Source-Developers.htm

Open source developers ditch iPhone for Android

,----[ Quote ]
| A new report has shown Googleâs Android 
| platform is enticing open source developers 
| away from creating apps on the iPhone.
`----

http://www.itpro.co.uk/621532/open-source-developers-ditch-iphone-for-android

Is Microsoft About to Declare Patent War on Linux?

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's comments on happenings outside 
| its immediate product portfolio are rare, 
| and all the more valuable when they do 
| appear. Here's one from Horacio Gutierrez, 
| âCorporate Vice President and Deputy 
| General Counselâ, entitled âApple v. HTC: A 
| Step Along the Path of Addressing IP Rights 
| in Smartphones.â
| 
| By now, all the alarm bells should be going 
| off: this is from Microsoft's top 
| intellectual monopoly bloke, writing about 
| one of the most surprising and potentially 
| disruptive lawsuits in the world of 
| technology â and one that doesn't even 
| involve Microsoft directly. Why on earth is 
| he doing it? Answer: because Microsoft has 
| something very important to communicate.
| 
| [...]
| 
| Translated: smartphones are mostly about 
| the kind of software that Microsoft 
| produces; we have lots of patents in this 
| area, and we are going to collect much more 
| in this area â if necessary, through 
| lawsuits (âcontinued activityâ) of the kind 
| Apple is bringing.
| 
| The question, of course, is against whom 
| will Microsoft be bringing those lawsuits? 
| And the answer, presumably, is everyone 
| that makes smartphone software stacks, 
| since these computer-like technologies will 
| doubtless overlap with some of the 
| doubtless broad and obvious patents that 
| Microsoft will claim to have.
| 
| Some companies, used to these kind of 
| games, will simply cross-license stuff if 
| they have a big enough portfolio of 
| similarly obvious patents. Others will just 
| cough up some dosh to get Microsoft off 
| their backs. But amidst all these 
| conventional players, there is one very 
| unconventional one: Linux, in its various 
| mobile incarnations.
| 
| Taking legal action against *all* companies 
| producing software stacks for smartphones 
| would allow Microsoft to claim with some 
| semblance of plausibility that it was not 
| specifically targeting Linux this time 
| (unlike its previous sabre-rattling 
| statements about patent infringement that 
| were specifically aimed at Linux). But the 
| net effect would be that Linux would be the 
| chief victim of such an approach, since any 
| companies using it in their smartphones are 
| likely to end up doing deals with Microsoft 
| â and hence implicitly accepting its claims 
| â whatever the open source community might 
| think or want. It would be like Novell's 
| pact with Microsoft, writ large and much 
| worse.
`---- 

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2860&blogid=14

Microsoft's twits resort to racketeering. It shows that they are losing.


Recent:

QA with Matt Asay: How Linux is Beating Apple and Much More

,----[ Quote ]
| Asay: I'm not sure this is the right
| question, as Linux already competes with and
| beats Apple in a huge array of devices. Linux
| spans everything from HPC to embedded devices
| and everything in between. Apple cannot
| compete with that. Could you build a
| supercomputer using Mac hardware? Sure, but
| you'd be mortgaging your house to do so and
| even then, the Mac would likely lose.
|
| Of course, Apple doesn't want to compete in
| such markets. It's famously focused and opts
| to do a few things very well, like its iPhone
| and laptops.
|
| Can Linux compete in these markets? Yes. Of
| course it can. Look at Android as perhaps the
| best example of effectively competing with
| Apple in mobile.  Apparently Apple agrees
| with me, as its patent infringement suit
| against HTC is almost certainly a shot over
| Google's bow, as The New York Times recently
| suggested. Apple is worried. And it should
| be.
`----

http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/185:jennifer-cloer/293844:qa-with-matt-asay-how-linux-is-beating-apple-and-much-more-
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