04.22.08
Quick Mention: Samsung’s Head Man Jumps Ship
On a couple of occasions over the past few weeks we wrote about the problems Samsung was having [1, 2]. Accusations were made about crime and anything that weakens those who liaise for Microsoft’s “royalty payment” schemes for Linux would be good news. That includes Samsung.
Here is the report from The Register.
Samsung chairman quits in corruption scandal
The disgraced chairman of Samsung quit the firm today in a bid to save its reputation, after he and nine other senior executives were indicted on tax dodging charges.
It seems likely that more CEOs who signed Linux software patent deals with Microsoft will see themselves dismissed. We already saw that happening before when Kevin Carmony left Linspire just months after signing the deal. With new leadership comes new philosophy sometimes. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.