Microsoft Gives Xandros Users Patent Protection

DigDuality writes "Microsoft, shrugging off licensing moves to prevent it from repeating its controversial patent deal with Novell, has signed a set of broad collaboration agreements with Linux provider Xandros that include an intellectual property assurance under which Microsoft will provide patent covenants for Xandros customers."

First one, then another ...

[WrongSizeGlass]

... until all the Lemming drank the cool-aide of fear.

How long before MS "protects" enough Linux companies that it claims it owns ... and even invented ... Linux? It may be time for Linus go join the Linux Protection Agency and assume a new identity.

How much were they paid?

[khasim]

The patent threat is just FUD.

I'm more interested, right now, in how much Xandros was paid for this "deal". Particularly after the problems Novell had with their's. And with Jeremy Allison leaving Novell after that deal.

They know their standing in the community is going to take a hit. So, how much was it worth to them?

Selling Out

[Nom du Keyboard]

What is selling out providing, except to bolster Microsoft's position that they must have something, else nobody would be dealing with them?

I don't, and I'll tell you why

[mrchaotica]

When it was just Novell, you know they'd be screwed after GPLv3 because they wouldn't have the resources to fork the last GPLv2 releases of everything. But on the other hand, if Novell and Xandros and ??? ('cause at this point I think we can assume MS will continue making deals) get together, there could be significant forks. And that's really, really bad news.

All the people who've been saying "MS has something else up it's sleeve; just wait for it..." have just been vindicated, I believe.

Re:Whatever

[Marcion]

Exactly, Xandros do not really interact with the wider free/open-source community, so have nothing to lose by getting into bed with Microsoft. The thing is, Microsoft's patents are probably not the best, they got there pretty late in the game, and there are Patent Troll organisations with bigger piles of better patents. So getting the green light from Microsoft does not get you very far.

Redhat ditched the end-user desktop market because they knew that all the money is in servers. Linux, the kernel, and the GNU tools like GCC, Bash, etc, are not very new ideas at all, prior art is everywhere. The basic Linux server system is not that different from a 1970s Unix machine etc. So the only difference between the 1970s box and a Linux server is basically Apache which implements open web standards, etc, and networking stuff which was invented by Novell and other companies that are on the Linux train anyway.

Therefore, I cannot see how a patent lawsuit could do that much damage to the LAMP world, and in the Linux desktop there is no money anyway. Considering the recent Supreme court decision, I think Microsoft's patent lawyers are General Custer and the Indians having one last hurrah before the world moves on.

Re:I like these deals

[VON-MAN]

That happens to be openSUSE nowadays, and it is totally unencumbered by any deal Novell has made with Microsoft. And if you used SuSE in the past you're probably interested to know that Yast2 is now a fast, complete and GPL'ed system configurationtool. If you install the smart packages, you can select repositories and update your machine synaptic-style. You'd find that allmost every interesting package can be found on the repositories for openSUSE (from MythTV to XDVDshrink and hugin to ltsp). Novell updates openSUSE like clockwork, and is equally like Red Hat and IBM a big force in kernel development. That makes openSUSE a popular, high quality, solid, open source distribution (and there aren't that many).

Now I know that Novell is very impopular now, but I think, that if openSUSE would disappear it would be loss for open source as a whole. And if also Xandros would disappear it really wouldn't be that great anymore.

Re:Two down, how many to go?

[pieterh]

No, ranting and raving won't do a thing.

However no monopoly is an island.

Look at how hard the Microsoft drones have tried to discredit GPLv3 here. There is a steady stream of propaganda: "GPLv3 takes away your rights, RMS is evil, why limit freedom..."

If we - those who are meant to swallow such crud - are worth talking to, then we're not powerless. Microsoft cannot make an infinite number of enemies in a networked world. At some stage it needs friends. And it's got so few left, it now has to buy them.

I'm really waiting for the day when Microsoft looks at Apple's and Google's share prices and realises "being nice could actually make us more money than being evil bastards that everyone hates."

They brought the Linux PC to WalMart.

[khasim]

Xandros was the Linux distribution running on Microtel hardware that WalMart was selling. It was a very big deal back then.

It's sad to see how far they've fallen.

Re:Here we go again....

[dpninerSLASH]

Has anyone stopped to consider the fact that this might be exactly how Microsoft wants the OS community to respond? The backlash against Novell after their deal was significant...it's safe to say they lost at least a handful of customers as a result.

If Microsoft can chip away little by little at the guys who are selling support services, then it only helps their business.

Of course I could be totally wrong.

Re:Jumping from the bush leagues to "The Show"

[DannyO152]

Okay for the short term.

But isn't there a point within the next 60 months when they will have to fork and maintain their own GPL2 licensed versions of vi, gcc, emacs, grep, awk, bash, tar, etc.? If they can't afford a conference table of employees, where will that support come from? Will Microsoft do it?

Re:Question

[rewt66]

Yeah, I think that too. And I was looking at the direction of the cash flow in this deal (which is in the direction that violates common sense) as proof.

Re:A propoganda step with a little fish

[Bruce Perens]

Both versions of linux (regardless of your stand on the patents) are safe from microsoft lawsuits

Not at all. You didn't read the Novell-Microsoft agreement. No use of server-client software is safe. No use of systems that send mail is safe. No use of wine, OpenOffice, several other programs is safe. No use of the software on the desktop is safe. And there are some additional ambiguous exceptions that may well apply to anything Microsoft decides they apply to.

Bruce

Re:Question

[Bruce Perens]

Yes, it violates common sense for Microsoft to pay Xandros to take the protection, if you judge the agreement at face value. Which is an important point to bring up in talking about this.

Bruce

Re:How much were they paid?

[killjoe]

Average joe is not familiar with the new office. OO looks more like the old office then the new office does.

If the CIO is smart he will minimize his training costs by switching to OO.

Re:How much were they paid?

[Kadin2048]

Xandros had a reputation -- pre-Ubuntu, anyway -- of being the most "polished" Linux distro. I think they've used up most of their cachet, but there was a point a few years back when I suspect, had you asked Joe Random Linux User what the best hope of "Linux on the Desktop" was, they probably would have mentioned Xandros at some point in their response.

I think Ubuntu pulled the rug out from under them, in large part, though; I haven't used any of their stuff lately, but last time I looked there just wasn't anything that made me want to fork over for one of their supported versions, that I didn't think I could get with Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu. (It *might* have some proprietary multimedia codecs -- e.g. MP3 or Divx -- pre-installed, but I'm not 100% clear on this.)