Mood:
sharpNow Playing: 'Muckmuck Does Manhattan' Caveman barricades one way street at intersection.
Topic: Integroty
Worth reading because it indicates Microsoft is not sitting as pretty as they would appear to want everyone out in the Linux FUD world as they would surely like. Here are excerpts of interest but worth having in the hopper for reference as we move forward.
Did Microsoft get their money's (and reputation's) worth in this deal with Novell? Perhaps not. In fact, they may have tied themselves to a rolling stone headed for a cliff.
May 26th, 2007
Novell publishes details on its Microsoft patent deal
Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:43 am Categories: Corporate strategy, Legal, Linux, Novell Tags: Novell Inc., Patent, Agreement, Microsoft Corp., GPLv3, SuSE, Mary Jo Foley
Excerpts:
Novell has posted ... redacted versions of the company’s patent, business and technology agreements with Microsoft, ...
Novell officials said ... they would post these documents before the end of May.
If the final version of GPLv3 contains terms or conditions that interfere ... Microsoft may cease to distribute SUSE Linux coupons in order to avoid the extension of its patent covenants ...
So now it’s even more obvious why Microsoft has been throwing around the “235 patents infringed by open source” claim. Novell is confirming that Microsoft may have to stop distributing SuSE Linux coupons if the Free Software Foundation’s General Public License (GPL) version 3 goes through with the current patent language in place.
Having to eliminate ... would hurt Microsoft’s campaign to convince other open-source vendors to sign similar deals. It also wouldn’t make Microsoft look too good to the handful of large corporate customers...
More at URL
This deal between Microsoft and Novell is not as advantageous and ironclad as Microsoft wants everyone to think.
