Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 3rd Nov 2006 20:02 UTC
Some more reactions to the Novell-Microsoft deal. Firstly, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is open to talking to other Linux distributors about reaching mutual patent coverage deals similar to the agreement signed Nov. 2 with Novell. Secondly, according to Red Hat, this deal means that 'Linux has won', while also saying they would never make such an agreement with Microsoft: "An innovation tax is unthinkable. Free and open source software provide the necessary environment for true innovation. Innovation without fear or threat. Activities that isolate communities or limit upstream adoption will inevitably stifle innovation." More reactions here and here. Update: Another response from Red Hat. In one year's time, a Red Hat general counsil said, Red Hat will be the only Linux commercial vendor left standing, Microsoft support or not.
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Member since:2005-11-02
If there's a risk of liabilities (which has been proven to exist) and those can't be solved by referring to the MS/Novell deal, then RH is the one that stands to lose if they don't get a separate agreement for the things that haven't already been covered.
MS is not going to sue RH it has too much to lose there. What it is going to do is produce a lot of FUD about how it might sue RH to try to deter potential customers from going with RH.
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Member since:
2005-08-26
Please... no more articles about this.
RH obviously tries to shrug this off, because with the Oracle stuff and MS/Novell deal, RH is left behind. While they are trying to figure out what this means for them, and what they should do, they are trying to appear as if they don't care at all.
RH don't have to worry about any GPL'd parts that are shared between SuSe and RHEL, but what about any parts that are not in SuSe but is in RHEL, licensed under GPL or under other license, or simply things that are not GPL or similar yet are still part of both.
If there's a risk of liabilities (which has been proven to exist) and those can't be solved by referring to the MS/Novell deal, then RH is the one that stands to lose if they don't get a separate agreement for the things that haven't already been covered.