[nzlug] Microsoft on Novell Deal

[Jim Cheetham]

On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 02:09:02PM +1300, Dirk Pilat wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:27:40 +1300, Matt Brown <matt at mattb.net.nz> wrote:
> >I think the benefits for Microsoft are obvious though. I'd like to hear
> >from Novell...
> >
> 
> Where are the benefits for MS? Enlighten a stupid immigrant to North  
> Otago....

Dissention and confusion?
Embrace and Extend ... :-)

Utilising (MS) patented technology will enable Novell to offer software
that is pretty much genuinely unique within the Linux world. At one
level there isn't much to choose between the various distributions at
the moment - they all have the same kernel, same toolchain, same set of
desktops.

On the other hand, if they do present patent-related software, even
under the GPL (and I don't think that GPL2 is capable of taking notice
of the patent status of code), they run the risk of becoming "Apple",
rather than "Ubuntu" - i.e. proprietary on an open base.

There's nothing inherently wrong there, because Apple's model seems to
work well.

So from the MS perspective, their partnership with Novell will get more
people away from a completely open source platform, at the worst. At the
best, it fractures the development teams as some work within Novell's
environment, and some work on non-patented software. This leads to a
delay in development for "Linux", one way or another.

At the PR level, Microsoft can claim that this allows them to work with
their "intellectual property" using the protection of patents on
open-source code. This legitimises the existance of "intellectual
property" (I tend to agree with RMS that this term has no legal
definition, and therefore shouldn't be used) and the concept of software
patents (which are not universally accepted, unless you want a
favourable trade agreement with the USA).

-jim