Microsoft has long claimed to own 235 patents which Linux violates. On Monday, the software giant announced a deal with Amazon in which the online retailer will pay Microsoft to use Linux-based servers.
According to eWeek’s Andrew Donoghue, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Horacio Gutierrez said, “This agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved.”
Open source commentators see this move by Microsoft as another example of it flexing its muscles over what it views as patent infringement by the open source community and software such as Linux.
