I'm curious how many people actually factor this into any due diligence for selecting technology for a project? How much weight do you give it? If I were to advise against using Azure, Windows, .NET because of patents charges for some Linux products I'm not sure my colleagues or clients would take me seriously. Yes, there are lots of reasons why you may not select MS tech, but patents seems a personal, political reason , which would be difficult to justify if you're trying to project it onto other people / organisations.