"Two months ago, the Brazilian Linux community gathered around BR-Linux invited Novell to answer 10 questions sent and selected by the users, about the company's stance on Linux, open source, licenses, document formats and other subjects." "Novell has been very consistent on this issue and we have publicly stated that we do not believe that Linux infringes on any Microsoft patents. That being said, our agreement with Microsoft takes the patent issue off the table for customers. We have simply made the patent issue a non-event as part of a customer buying decision."
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Member since:2005-11-16
Member since:2007-05-05
That is pure nonsense. Most of the agreement was already released please read it. There is an explicit point saying "NO PARTY, BY SIGNING THIS AGREEMENT, ADMITS TO ANY FORM OF PATENT INFRINGEMENT". Novell have also stated it a million times (and at least 5 times in that article). How clear could it be?
That kind of reasoning is just full of fallacies and doesn't help anyone.
Member since:2006-10-25
Your very peculiar choice of analogy aside, you are missing a few key points.
Microsoft used the deal with Novel to threaten Linux. Not Red Hat, not Ubuntu, but Linux itself.
M.A.D. (your analogy) exists in the patent world without deals. And there your analogy falls short.
Microsoft was not attempting to aid the legitimacy of Linux or protect itself from Novel patents. Microsoft very quickly made it clear that the entire purpose of agreeing not to sue Novel was to gain one or more major Linux distro to “admit” that Linux infringed upon Microsoft patents.
Novel made money off the deal. Microsoft paid them. When Microsoft betrayed them, Novel cried foul, but hasn’t actually done anything to stop or reverse the damage (fear) they have helped Microsoft spread.
Novel is a company, and any company’s primary goal is to make money. Microsoft gave Novel money, and then attempted to set fire to Novel’s product.
I repeat again: the patent deal Microsoft paid Novel to agree to has very little to do with patents. Novel may have been naive (perhaps conveniently so), but the real betrayer, the real backstabber is clear.
Novel says they accepted the deal because peace is better, and less costly. Then Microsoft said “See, Novel has joined our side of the war and agrees that you all owe us. Now who else will join us?”
Novel: “Wait. What?”
There, I hope that clears it up for you. The issue being discussed is whether Novel was stupidly naïve, or selling Linux out with a promise of exclusion form the subsequent damage.
Member since:2007-05-05
It's "Novell" by the way, not "Novel". Anyway:
> Novel cried foul, but hasn’t actually done anything to stop or reverse the damage (fear) they have helped Microsoft spread.
This is not true. They've persistently said that Microsoft have no grounding on that point at all. So really it just makes Microsoft look silly.
> Novel may have been naive
Which part of Novell getting a lot of money, boosting its Linux engineering team significantly, selling more copies of SUSE Linux Enterprise, growing stocks... is Novell looking "naive"?
Member since:2005-08-11
Member since:
2005-07-06
once again the issue of Novell, Microsoft and patents comes up.
how many times in how many discussions does it have to be noted that both Microsoft and Novell have made a no sue policy with each other.
it simply means that in the future neither company can get the lawyers out over stupid stuff like double-click and slide bars.
if you would like it broken down in laymans terms here is an example.
during the cold war, nato had nuclear missles,(patents), purely to retaliate against the nuclear missiles,(patents) from the soviet block.
lately, the allied coalition has been invlolved in a conflict in iraq, trying to remove the wepons of mass destruction, (patents) from a corrupt government.
we are never told one side is good and one side is evil
oh, wait....