Microsoft Extending Linux Patent Deal With SUSE 68
darthcamaro writes "No big surprise, but Microsoft has now officially extended their patent, interoperability and Linux resale deal with SUSE. This was the deal that Novell had originally signed. Now, with the Attachmate sale, Microsoft is bringing the deal back to SUSE. The deal is being extended until 2016 and Microsoft is set to invest another $100 million into SUSE Linux Enterprise Server certificates. This is on top of the $300-million-plus they've already brought since 2006."
Now SUSE's interest in LibreOffice makes sense... (Score:2, Interesting)
The past Novell-Microsoft interop agreement, the one being renewed now, called for Novell to attend OOXML committee meetings in ISO, to implement OOXML, etc.
How much of that continues now?
I'm more than a little concerned that Microsoft now has its fingers in LibreOffice, at least by proxy. From the Membership Committee members who pick who can and who cannot join the Document Foundation, to the small number of engineers who control write access to the master source code repository, LibreOffice is dominated by Novell/SUSE engineers.
It looks like the intent of the deal, in part at least, is to take business from RedHat: https://expandedsupport.com/
In other words, Microsoft's patent FUD used to steer RedHat customers to SUSE. The dupe, of course, is RedHat, which is a LibreOffice supporter, supporting a SUSE-led project that is propped up by Microsoft in order to steal customers away from RedHat.
Re:Come on butthurt fanboys (Score:4, Interesting)
Embrace, extend, extinguish. You can pretend that MS never actually used that strategy - but it's historically true. Today, they have to be a bit more sneaky.
Re:Come on butthurt fanboys (Score:1, Interesting)
Payment the wrong way (Score:5, Interesting)
The original deal and its extension are the only cases I know where someone has said "You're violating my patents. Here, have $300 million and let that be a lesson for you!"
Re:1% Linux Marketshare (Score:4, Interesting)
In "cloud computing" Microsoft's market share is nearly nonexistent. The back end is all Linux, BSD, and Java stacks. Windows hosting is quite rare.
The PC is waning. Macs, smartphones, and tablets are rapidly replacing conventional PCs for many people, and for almost everyone on the go. Few if any people choose Windows Mobile smartphones, and Microsoft rendered the once-exploding PocketPC platform irrelevant by neglect many years ago. It's an Android + iDevice market on the front end/thin client/client side, and other players may as well not exist. So, with the PC market becoming smaller and smaller, and the server market growing larger and larger, and being based mostly on open-source back ends, Microsoft HAS to be dabbling in the UNIX world if not to embrace it, at least to gain insight into how clients are using and rearchitect Windows to provide UNIX's strength - or simply exit the industry and start something else instead. Maybe they can make mops or something?
Microsoft is involved with SUSE for Microsoft's own benefit, not for the OSS "community," not for Linux users, and certainly not for their own customers (since when does Microsoft give a crap about its users? Money is their golden calf!).
Re:Come on butthurt fanboys (Score:5, Interesting)
Go read the publicly available part of the terms then. Or have a lawyer read it for you.
They didn't promise ANY indemnity against anyone who made money off of their work, or shared the source code, unless that source code was included in Novell's Suse. Presumably that now will apply to Attachmate's Suse...but since the promise is essentially worthless (e.g., you aren't indemnified if you submit the work to Suse, and they decide not to use it, or if you don't submit it to them, but put it on sourceforge, etc.) it really doesn't matter who you would need to get to approve your work.
Then there are the parts of the agreement that aren't public. Since the publicly visible parts are so appalling (I'm supposed to be grateful for THAT!!??) I find it hard to imagine what the rest is like. Probably services that Suse must perform for them in return for the agreement. (Which does, let's admit it, pay Suse, or it's owning company, a bit of cash.)
Since I saw an analysis of the agreement, I've refused to have anything to do with Suse.