Enderle on the Linux platform ..

[Doug Mentohl]

Ever since Microsoft adopted the "let's get along" strategy of licensing 
and interoperating, it has been hard to get people to volunteer their 
time for the platform, and interest seems to be waning ..

Linux has always seemed strongest when being attacked by Microsoft, and 
it clearly is missing that strength this year ..

TomTom .. Unlike other companies in this space that have licensed 
navigation technology from Microsoft, it chose not to. That can be a 
dangerous path with any Fortune 50 technology company ..

Microsoft .. can't allow anyone to simply take the technology without 
paying ..

It seems the motivation is less what Microsoft has done and what these 
folks need to have happen. They want Microsoft to become the rallying 
cry again and drive back the kind of interest and effort that they had 
five or so years ago ..

On the TomTom side, getting the open source community to apply pressure 
on Microsoft could prevent expensive litigation and a possible judgment 
it can't afford.  It is an interesting and creative strategy, but it 
probably won't change the outcome.

A better path might have been to try to get this arbitrated so it could 
focus back on the market and its real competitors. This is one of the 
problems with litigation: It provides false hope because you are often 
told what you want to hear, not what you need to know ...

http://tinyurl.com/an35be
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/enderle/is-microsoft-targeting-linux-through-tom-tom-oh-please/?cs=30858
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2009-02-03-034-35-OS-LL
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I guess the sentiments expressed above are straight from the Microsoft 
hymnbook and to summarize, Ms-to-Tom Tom: Please settle quickly and 
don't accept any help from the FSF or the OIN ...