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Miguel Helft reported yesterday in the NY Times about the rather fuzzy business rationale behind Google’s persistently rumored mobile phone project (frequently dubbed the “gphone”). Google’s creation of a Linux-based operating system for cell phones would presumably further the spread of Google mobile advertising for some sort of dubious payoff, but there are some apparent strategic goals including new competition for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system business.
Microsoft and Novell today announced the opening of an interoperability lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts that had been promised in their collaboration agreement of last November.
Last Friday the Free Software Foundation released the GNU General Public License, version 3 and there have been a variety of reactions, not all enthusiastic. Since one of the avowed targets of GPL v3 was Microsoft’s recent patent deals with Linux distributors (e.g. with Novell and with Xandros), there was great anticipation for what Microsoft’s reaction would be to the final version. That reaction was announced yesterday and is basically the claim that GPL v3 does not apply and a disclaimer to make sure it never applies:
