“That’s extortion and we should call it what it is. To say, as Ballmer did, that there is undisclosed balance sheet liability, that’s just extortion and we should refuse to get drawn into that game.”

--Mark Shuttleworth

Summary: The attack on the freedom of Linux continues to appear to be coming from Microsoft allies, not Linux companies

IN THE previous post we showed that Windows Mobile is going nowhere, but one of the companies that joined Microsoft's anti-Linux racket is still supporting Windows Mobile. That would be LG, which chose to pay Microsoft for Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

Sprint, LG, Microsoft To Intro WinMo WiMax Phone?

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All of this thrown in together points at just one likely conclusion: Sprint is going to launch its first WiMax-enabled smartphone. Not only will the device have WiMax, but it will run Windows Mobile and it will be made by LG. Such a device would be quite big news for all three companies involved.

We previously showed a direct relationship between paying Microsoft for Linux and collaborating technically with Microsoft. Last month we gave Xandros and Samsung as timely examples [1, 2]. Novell is a more obvious example with Mono and Moonlight, to name just two projects that serve Microsoft. Now we are seeing the same from LG. ⬆