02.18.13
Microsoft Tries to ‘Steal’ Android Apps While Attacking Android With Software Patents, BT Countersued
May BT go to Hell…
Summary: Microsoft’s partner BT got sued after it had attacked Android; Microsoft has got malicious plans against Android
HE duopoly, Microsoft and Apple, has been trying to make Android expensive through patent stacking, FRAND, and lawsuits, some by trolls the duopolists arm. In the mean time Microsoft tries against Android the same tactics it used against Linux servers; it tries to port applications from FOSS platforms to Windows. One
pundit says:
Could Android–a mobile operating system from Microsoft’s arch rival Google–actually be the key to solving Microsoft’s mobile problems? I suggested as much in early January in a post called “Why Microsoft’s Surface Team Should Warm Up to Android.” In that post, I suggested that Microsoft’s new Surface tablets could resolve problems with the dearth of apps available from Microsoft by beginning to run Android apps through BlueStacks App Player.
BlueStacks App Player has been available for some time for Windows users who want to run Android apps on PCs, and it’s available for Mac users. And now, sure enough, BlueStacks has released a free version that is optimized for Microsoft’s Surface Pro.
With control of Linux through UEFI Microsoft may be planning to make life harder for Android, not just GNU and Linux. To quote Pamela Jones: “This isn’t precisely news, in that Microsoft announced in January of 2012 that BlueStacks would be built into Windows 8. This is Steve Ballmer’s dream: that FOSS applications run on Microsoft’s kernel instead of on Linux. So, let me get this straight: first Microsoft insists vendors build in UEFI, so folks have a major struggle to dual boot or to install Linux instead of Windows, if they can at all, and now this. Coincidence? The article pretends this is about “freedom” but trust me, that is the very last thing this is about. Nor did the community produce BlueStacks.”
BT, the company which does not value customers (I’ve had a lot of problems with them over the past month), has been suing Android along with the duopoly and other allies of theirs. Google fights back now:
BT’s plan to make millions of dollars from licensing its patent portfolio by suing web giants including Google has run into a problem: Google and its phone subsidiary Motorola Mobility are countersuing it for patent infringement, calling the lawsuit filed in 2011 by BT “meritless” and accusing it of using shell companies to file other suits.
Shell companies as in trolls. Microsoft does that, with MOSAID as an obvious example Google already complained about. █
