Tuning up the Ratio
Tuning up the Ratio
As is so often the case in this business, a big, earthshaking news story hit the press just as we were sending our own issue to the printer.
Of course, big stories happens all the time, and it seems like we are always printing something, so we take these collisions in stride. In this case, the news is that Google just bought Motorola Mobility for US$ 12.5 billion – a pretty big expense for a company like Google that has always prided itself on being the quintessential web company, with no complicated manufacturing or other corporeal uncertainties gumming up the path to the customer. Google’s strategy has always been so pure – just programming, marketing, and managing data. Since when did they want to start making and distributing electronic devices? What’s next? TVs? Toothpaste?
It only took a few hours for the news sites to pick up on the real story. This tale is about patents. Unlike many more conventional companies, Google never really got into the patent game. Even when they started working on Android – a new frontier for which they seemed fully prepared technically – they really didn’t come to play legally. The game with patents is about attacking the weakest opponent. If I have patents and you don’t, I will sue you mercilessly. If you have patents and I have reason to fear you will sue me back, I leave you alone.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.