From an article posted at Mac World by Robert McMillan:

A small Indiana company has sued tech heavyweights Microsoft, Apple, and Google, claiming that it holds the patent on a common file preview feature used by browsers and operating systems to show users small snapshots of the files before they are opened.

Cygnus Systems sued the three companies on Wednesday saying that they infringed on its patent with products such as Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, which allow users to view preview images of documents on the computer. Mac OS X, the iPhone and Safari also infringe, the company said in court filings. Apple uses this technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features, the filings state.

A quick look at Cygnus Systems’ website shows at least a strong relationship with one of those named defendants:

I guess I don’t quite understand the politics behind it, but suing a vendor which you’ve been named a partner of and for which a large part of your business is based on doesn’t sound very logical. Given the nature of the patent which the lawsuit is based on, other companies could be considered future defendants.

A more in-depth article now exists at Ars Technica.

I was going to go into a whole MS vs. Linux debate with witty metaphors and sarcasm, but it was getting too long-winded. To keep it short…

I guess you need to cut through the marketing campaigns and the legal mumbo-jumbo to see that there are other alternatives out there. They might not always be better. But I can no longer justify paying big bucks for Vista, which has it’s own broken areas, when I can I use Linux everywhere for just about everything for zero dollars.

The story revolves around a gamer named Nathaniel. He’s been a huge fan of the XBox 360 and had a special console of his own. He had it pre-ordered in advance of the rollout and still has his receipt to prove it. Taking it with him to shows and appearances, he was able to get the case signed by many of the XBox and Bungie developers and designers. He even had a custom drawn Halo character put on it by Luke McKay.

Then came the day when it encountered the “Red Ring Of Death” and failed to work. Getting it repaired meant sending it away to Redmond. After making a few calls, he was assured that he would get back the same XBox that he sent in and that it would be taken care of carefully. Since it had a lot of sentimental value, he took every step possible to ensure he would get it back intact including a letter to the technician, who would eventually work on the console, in with his XBox explaining how much he valued it.

They did return his XBox, but someone at Redmond wiped it down and removed all the artwork and autographs. BS Angel at hawtymcbloggy.com ran a few articles and word slowly got around. The first major response was from the team at Bungie who sent him a huge care package including a Halo helmet autographed by many of the staff, an autographed Halo CD, jacket, t-shirt, bag, faceplate and skins, and few more items.

Grateful to the Bungie team Nathaniel had to have been, Microsoft still had its own face to save. They had contacted Nathaniel at the start of this internet drama and said they would make good on the screw up. Since then, not much was heard until recently when a big box showed up Nathaniel’s door with a note reading “Enjoy! <3 Thegamersscroeblog Team & Everyone on the enclosed!” Inside was an XBox 360 with new artwork and autographs, including a faceplate with the ever elusive Bill Gates’ signature right across the front. On top of that was five games, bumperstickers, a XBox cd wallet and an autographed picture of Bill Gates.

Nathaniel had this to say:

“My overall mood about the packages I have received from Bungie and Microsoft is nothing short of ecstatic, but compensation was never my focus. The only thing I have specifically asked of Microsoft and the Xbox 360 team for is this particular case to be examined so that some change(s), whether small or broad, can be made to the service process to prevent the occurrence of any similar scenario. This remains my only request.”

Pictures of the new XBox 360 are present with more pictures at BS Angel’s blog linked above.