Perhaps Canonical sees handwriting on the wall?
I sent this to Xandros the other day, after being made to jump through hoops to communicate with them ( the only way is through tech support, and they generate a "ticket"). Needless to say, I haven't heard from anyone at Xandros; I thought you might be interested in my reaction to the tactics of the Redmond Trolls:
"(c) 2010, Jon Colt
Dear Customer Service:
Please ensure that this message is sent to your upper management, as it will get there, one way or another.
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Dear Xandros Upper Management:
I would like to thank you for making my job so much easier: by caving in to Microsoft's spurious and specious claims and entering into a "collaboration" (aren't euphemisms simply WONDERFUL?) in order to protect yourself against implied litigation due to implied patent infringement on implied AND unspecified intellectual property, you have reduced--by one--the number of options with which I provide my customers when I design and provide support for a Linux system.
Of course (upon further consideration) there is one condition under which I will still consider using Xandros: you provide me with all those patents which Microsoft told you your Linux distribution were infringing, and I'll make my own decisions (Microsoft DID specify what patents of theirs that your Linux was infringing upon, didn't they?). You just simply pass that information along to the rest of us, and I'm more than certain that you'll be rewarded with all Linux consumers flocking to you as their distro of choice,
Until then, best of luck in your efforts against all your competitors who have the guts to have told, and will tell, Microsoft to stuff it.
Warmest regards,
Jon Colt."
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I can, somewhat, understand a small fish like Xandros doing this, but what absolutely amazes me is that what I considered--up until now--a high-quality organization (Amazon) giving in to Microsoft's blatant patent-trolling, blackmail techniques.
Vote with your feet, your dollars/pounds/euros, and communication.