Microsoft on Wednesday filed suit against the GPS navigational device maker, alleging it is infringing eight patents, some of which involve technologies found in a version of the Linux OS that TomTom's portable devices run.

Microsoft maintains the suit has nothing to do with Linux itself but is a specific disagreement between the two companies over specific technologies.

"We took this action after trying -- in good faith -- for more than a year to resolve this matter with TomTom," said Microsoft spokesman Michael Marinello in an e-mail Thursday. He said Alpine Electronics of America, Kenwood U.S.A., Pioneer Electronics (USA) and other companies already license the technology in question from Microsoft.

Still, because the patent-infringement suit involves Linux -- which Microsoft executives two years ago violates more than 235 patents the company holds -- the news has made the Linux community uneasy and distrustful of Microsoft once again.

Moreover, it's a reversal of a friendlier attitude toward open source that Microsoft has tried to cultivate with the formation of its Platform Strategy Group a little more than a year ago. The mission of that group, in part, is aimed at reversing the message of Microsoft's infamous "Get the Facts" campaign of several years ago. That campaign aggressively tried to show customers the value proposition of deploying a Windows environment instead of Linux.