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Microsoft/Samsung Ink Patent Deal
An anonymous reader wrote with an article at ZDNet, discussing further implications of their patent cross-licensing initiative. With options already in place with Fuji Xerox, the company is now signed up with Samsung as well. From Samsung's perspective, it is simple: these deals ensure it can sell products using Linux without facing a suit from the Redmond-based corporation. "The notion that customers and businesses need Microsoft's legal go-ahead to run Linux has been controversial for some time, with the issue rising to the surface last November after Microsoft reached an accord with Linux vendor Novell. Novell has since taken issue with Microsoft's assertion that the deal represents an acknowledgment that Linux infringes on Microsoft patents."
Do you guys actually believe that Samsung's no-doubt massive legal team didn't comb over this agreement and consider it necessary and relevant?
Why does everyone assume that companies just *do* things that will ruin everyone, everything, and allow another company victory?
If it seems like Samsung is forfeiting profit, you're simply looking at it wrong. The kind of oversight people are making on this thread about the purpose of this deal would result in the company literally getting sued by their shareholders.
In short, Samsung did this because it was cheaper or convenient for them, and would not cost them any sales or necessary flexibility.
Stop acting like open source is so inflexible and fragile! This is Novell and Samsung's business, not the entire OSS community's.