On 16th June, Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind Canonical and Ubuntu GNU/Linux, made a big post: "No Negotiations with Microsoft in Progress" The post is about he refuses the Microsoft agreement to not sue anyone from any unknown patent infringement. The state is clear, he doesn't agree for signing against anything that unknown. Which is then the deal cannot be justified clearly. Why Mark dares to take the challenge? Reason #1 It would be troublesome for Microsoft if they put patent infringement against Cannonical. If Microsoft ever wins, then most likely Ubuntu and any GNU/Linux systems would be banned from US, but not the rest of the world, e.g. EU. How could this happen? The FOSS people like FSF most likely will bundle their important projects with many patents so that any of their works and derivatives would become useless to any company in the US. This would lock US companies to proprietary alternatives and the IT costs would climb up. Something like good old revenge...