Macehiter Ward-Dutton: Blog on IT-business alignment and related things

IT-business alignment

Friday, November 17, 2006

Ballmer and infringing Linux

I just came across this post from David Berlind over at ZDNet which discusses Steve Ballmer's claims that Linux uses Microsoft intellectual property. I have to say the fact that this is recent news came as a bit of a surprise to me. Not because I know there's Microsoft IP in Linux (I am far from qualified to say) but because this is something Microsoft made pretty clear to me in my discussions with them about the Novell agreement, as I pointed out here:

Microsoft said to me that Novell is the only company which can truly claim to be able to indemnify Linux customers which is a clear indication that they believe there is Microsoft IP in Linux and must raise concerns about other distributions, such as Red Hat and Ubuntu. The deal with Novell is not exclusive so it will be interesting to see if Red Hat comes knocking on the Redmond door: I am sure Microsoft would welcome them.

posted by Neil Macehiter @ 6:11 PM 3 comments

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Comments:

It's legal maneuvering. Ballmer's a puppet for a team of lawyers, which if you can visualize... well, that sounds painful.

posted by

Anonymous : 12:32 AM permalink

i made the same mistake. go back and check the deal- it *is* exclusive. i think MS is playing some dangerous games here though. if they had something on Linux why are the pumping money into Novell? i have to say the deal is becoming more pungent.

posted by

Anonymous : 5:49 PM permalink

As far as I understand it James, based on my discussions with Microsoft and a response to a direct question, the agreement with Novell is exclusive only in terms of the distribution of the 70,000 support coupons and not the techical and IP licensing arrangements. See this story for example http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/10/HNnovellperkms_1.html
which includes the following:

'However, Microsoft said that there "is no exclusivity" in some of Microsoft's collaborative technical work with Novell on Web services management and connectors between Open Document Format and the file format for Microsoft Office, as well as the companies' patent agreement.'

and this quote from a Microsoft spokesperson:

"While Microsoft cannot enter into exactly the same set of agreements with another Linux provider based on the few areas of exclusivity, Microsoft can and would be willing to entertain similar deals that contain many (in fact, most) of the same elements that are at the core of the Novell agreement," Microsoft said.

This is also discussed in a Novell press release on November 7th http://www.novell.com/news/press/item.jsp?id=1199

"Additionally, under the business collaboration agreement, Microsoft agreed that for three years, it will not enter into an agreement with another Linux distributor to encourage adoption of Linux/Windows virtualization solutions through a Linux subscription certificate program. "

that's not to say of course that Microsoft couldn't encourage adoption in other ways.

I agree that Microsoft could be playing a dangerous game and I too am in the dark why Microsoft would agree to pay hundreds of millions to Novell if it had something on Linux (unless Novell had something on Microsoft?).

All very cloak and dagger

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