I'm pretty sure Samsung wouldn't just pay Microsoft without at least first checking to see if there's any validity in the patent claims.

I guess you don't follow the news too closely, then.

The patent claims are hogwash. Microsoft tried deliberately to keep the patent claims secret and/or vague (in contravention to the spirit and word of the law) in order to intimidate companies into paying up.

They've tried every dirty trick in the book to prolong legal action to keep the extortion racket going.

The FOSS community has tried to get the claims aired in public to disprove them (trivial, obvious, prior art, nonsense etc.) or to be able to replace any infringing code with non-infringing implementations.

However, some individuals and corporations with deep pockets have simply decided to pay off Microsoft (and their henchmen) to avoid even more costly legal battles (only the lawyers win etc.).

Anyway, Microsoft has put itself in a very strange situation with this. Let us adopt Douglas Adams' proof of the non-existence of God here.

Microsoft says to the world, "You people (companies and so on) using, developing and distributing Linux are infringing on our patents. We demand $5 for each smartphone shipped with the Android OS (i.e. Linux kernel) installed. [And, by the way, if you buy a license for SuSE Linux, we promise not to sue you for any of our patents which it infringes, but that's another story...]"

"Oh," replies the world, "But you are now thinking of giving Windows Phone OS away for free to any smartphone manufacturer who wants it."

"Yes, that's business!" Says Microsoft.

"Oh, I suppose so," Says the world, "But Windows contains lots of wonderful technology that only Microsoft engineers could possibly have thought of, inspired by the greatness of the corporation."

"You've got it in one!" Replies Microsoft smugly.

"And those stinking un-American pinko-commie hippies who right FOSS (Linux, cancer) must have stolen Microsoft's ideas."

"There is hope for you yet, young feller!" Guffaws Microsoft.

"But in giving Windows Phone away for free, you are admitting that there is no intrinsic monetary value in pre-compiled, closed-source software, in this case a mature, well-understood technology (i.e. and Operating System. And as such, these wonderful patents of yours have no monetary value."

Silence from Microsoft.

"So if your software and patents have no value, how do you justify charging other people for them who have come up with independent implementations of the same old (ancient) technology?"

"Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that!" Says Microsoft, who promptly disappears in a puff of logic.

No, it means Microsoft shareholders should buy some Google stock...

But Microsoft collect a "license fee" from all the major Android phone vendors for "patents" used in the Linux kernel.

I wonder what the various national courts around the world will make of this... giving your own OS away for free while running an extortion racket for protection money from your competitors?

I hope they don't. I currently live and work in England! :-)

Scotland?

They wouldn't dare invade Scotland.

And we have these too.

But I haven't got the money.

The more I see of other people's code, the more I am inclined to write and test my own. That way I know it works and when it doesn't, I only have myself to blame. This isn't always possible because most tasks are way to big for a single person, so stick to well-used, well-understood, well-tested (in the real world) FOSS solutions. In general, closed-source vendor-proprietary code is dreadful.

Tell it like it is!

There is a thing called a motorjet or thermojet which was invented in the early 20th Century and was a fore-runner of the gas turbine.

In the days before most people realised that a self-sustaining gas turbine was possible, someone came up with the idea of using a reciprocating piston engine with a ducted fan or propeller to compress air and to inject fuel and burn in in the compressed air stream (like an afterburner on a modern jet engine).

They may not even need any fine print. Accepting compensation can affect your right to seek damages later.

Eggsasperating!

Whenever I crack an egg, I will imagine I am hearing the sound "Li Ka-shing" for the rest of my life . . .

That's the sound of his cash-register while he's Ka-shing in on his new enterprise...

I am allergic to eggs (and milk) you insensitive clod.

this is also a convenient opportunity for promoting local technology firms

The European Internet brought to you by SAP AG?

Bush won Florida. It is a simple fact.

It was the zombie vote that did it.

Because the amount of stock I could afford to buy on my meager salary and savings in this broken economy is so trivial that I'd starve and lose my house by the end of the week.