It is now official. In addition to the Linux Foundation, Linux now has the backing of the Open Inventions Network.

In less than a year, OIN has accumulated more than 100 strategic, worldwide patents and patent applications that span Web / Internet, e-commerce, mobile and communications technologies. These patents are available to all as part of the free Linux ecosystem that OIN is creating around, and in support of Linux. We stand ready to leverage our IP portfolio to maintain the open patent environment OIN has helped create.

Here is further proof -- as if any was needed -- from the man behind the kernel that Microsoft is unlikely to sue.

Microsoft would prefer not to actually sue anyone, particularly a Linux user who's also a Microsoft customer. "They'd have to name the patents then, and they're probably happier with the FUD [fear, uncertainty, doubt] than with any lawsuit," Torvalds predicted.

Linus Torvalds agrees with Eben Moglen for a change: Microsoft patent claims are FUD.

While Torvalds and Free Software Foundation legal counsel Eben Moglen don't always see eye to eye, they seem to be in harmony on this issue.

Here is Eben's new talk. Its title is apparently "The be very afraid tour".