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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

So Redhat is hostile towards Linux too then, right? Because if they weren't, they wouldn't push their competing products against Canonical or Suse.

Just because companies release competing, incompatible products, doesn't mean they're "hostile" towards one another.

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Redhat is not pushing developers into producing software incompatible with anything but their own system. They are actively involved in the development of almost all core software common to all distros, and even flatpak, which is meant to tear down barriers between distro package formats rather than prop up the wall.

Microsoft could push Windows all they want if they were not also pushing an ecosystem exclusive to that platform along with it. If Windows was "just another unix" and was interchangeable at the user level with other operating systems, particularly those that would respect user freedoms, there would be no issue with its nature as "default" or in Microsofts behavior in regards to its users, because there would be real choice.

Real choice, in exactly the same way Red Hat vs SUSE vs Ubuntu users have right now amongst themselves.

Oh... ok. So because Redhat makes some products that ONLY work on Linux, and are interchangeable between a few distros (although not the supported paid-for versions), you get "real choice".

What's my choice if I'm an AIX user, or a Solaris user, or an HPUX user, or a Windows user, or a FreeBSD user? My choice is to switch operating systems? Sort of like the choice MS provides?

Well, MS is still extorting money from android vendors using os related patents.

That's completely irrelevant. But "extorting" is more than a BIT of a stretch. They've got valid patents that Android handset makers need. Just like they need licensing to even put a cellular modem in the phone in the first place.

If you honestly think Samsung would willingly hand over $10-15 per handset over bunk patents, I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona you might be interested in.

Many of those patents are directly targeting Linux and all are BS. Samsung earns enough money so that they chose not to enter multi billion dollar gambit where law protects BS software patents.

A quick look at the list tells me you don't know what you're talking about. First one: using cell network and GPS for more accurate positioning.

That has nothing to do with Linux or Android directly, and everything to do with ANY CELLPHONE.

Where is this list ?

http://images.mofcom.gov.cn/pep/201404/20140408143159274.doc...

Any chance this is available as a pdf ?

Lots of companies have "valid patents" that are bullshit and not particularly innovative but they don't use them to attack other companies when they can't compete. See Google for example, they only use patents defensively.

Oh, maybe but I don't see what any of that has to do with the topic at hand.

These patents aren't being used passively. They are being used for royalties. And Samsung wouldn't pay the royalty unless there was a strong legal case.

Exactly, they are being used offensively to rent seek. Not defensively (only used to sue companies that sue you).

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