RLiegh sends us to an AP article reporting that
Linspire has signed a patent deal with Microsoft. The company, which started out life as "Lindows," joins a
growing list of
patent agreements reached between Microsoft and
vendors. Linspire will be granted a license to use True Type Fonts and "various code" that would allow for Linspire users to use voice on Windows Live Messenger as well as the
usual patent protection for Linspire's customers. In return, among other things, Linspire will make Microsoft's search engine the default search on PCs shipped with their OS. Kevin Carmony, the CEO for Linspire, approached Microsoft a year and a half ago, according to the article.