From the ‘Platinum Microsoft Licensee’ Files:
The Linux Foundation is bringing Linus Torvalds to South Korea. Torvalds will be a key speaker at the inaugural Korea Linux Forum which is set to occur October 11 to 12 in Seoul, South Korea.
Linux is certainly no stranger to Asia, though the Linux Foundation seems to have had more events (and success) in Japan in recent years. The move to have an event in Korea is being driven by consumer electronics giant Samsung.
“Korea is a hotbed of new Linux development, especially in the mobile and embedded areas,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation, in a statement. “The Korea Linux Forum will help bridge the amazing work being done in the country with the global Linux community, resulting in technical advancements for Linux and that impact the entire ecosystem. We are pleased to work with our member Samsung on this event and other activities to hopefully tap into the developer talent pool in Korea”
Samsung is now a platinum member of the Linux Foundation and is actively engaged in Linux efforts.
That said, I think it’s also important to remember that Samsung was among the first vendors to make a patent deal with Microsoft over alleged open source/Android/GPL patent infringement.
I hope one (or more) of the sessions at the Korean Forum emphasizes the strong legal resources that the Linux Foundation can bring into play and that neither vendors nor developers need to license patents in order to user Linux successfully.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
