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13 Reasons To Celebrate the New MS-Novell Pact

Posted by Hemos on from the well-maybe-good-reasons dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The recently announced agreement between Microsoft Corporation and Novell, Inc. has resulted in much concern that it could be harmful for Linux and other free software. However, the agreement itself, as well as its timing and comments made by Microsoft executives about it, may actually be a very good thing — and perhaps even worthy of celebration!"

4 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Needs More FUD by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Whoever wrote this article lives in a fantasy land full of gum drop trees and puppy dog kisses.

    Not only are these points weak, they're a stretch. And number four is laughable,
    (4) The agreement and accompanying threats are serving as additional bad publicity in the free software community for an increasingly troubled Microsoft, and the effect will be to further motivate developers and users of free software. People do not like to be threatened or bullied, and they can react strongly to it.
    That's right, folks, this agreement will make developers so angry that they'll triumph in the face of Microsoft telling them they're all patent infringers. Yep, sound argument to me. Let's see here ... SAMBA developers very happy & OpenSUSE devs happy. In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic.

    And also, some of the footnotes are pure comedic genius,
    Benefitting Microsoft could be a good thing, even in the eyes of many advocates of free software, if it helps that company to reallocate its massive resources to emphasize developing truly innovative and quality products instead of attempting (increasingly in vain) to protect a doomed monopoly. These resources include its large number of very talented employees, some of whom are our friends and neighbors.
    It's so funny because the way I see it, this was the perfect way to hobble Linux & threaten all the application development on it so that the competition for Windows dwindles & therefore they can produce pure crap and we'll have to use it. Please explain yourself, Linux Information Project.
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    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Needs More FUD by Ajehals · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This line made me think of something I hadn't thought to consider before (excuse my rather twisted mental process... and appologies for potentially adding to any MS generated FFUD - it is not intended.)
        Anyway - the line:

      That's right, folks, this agreement will make developers so angry that they'll triumph in the face of Microsoft telling them they're all patent infringers.

      My thought:

      Setting aside for a moment the fact that software patents are not applicable everywhere, and some other points such as the wide geographic spread of OSS developers..

      Is it possible that MS or any other patent holder would go after the individual developers responsible for the creation of OSS software?

      I don't mean just the large companies or business that use OSS (i.e. groups that could actually pay any compensation) , but the individuals who produce the applications, fixes and add ons that OSS is built up of. The worry here would be that it would place a burden on potential developers and potentially reduce the amount of people willing to contribute...

      Moreover with the US seemingly having a much larger international grasp, (not a partisan political comment but there have been a number of cases where US domestic law appears to have been used against individuals with either only tenuous links to the US or no links at all, but where poor exradition agreements exist...) would that potentially threaten international development efforts that are occurring outside the scope of the US patent law?

      I hate to say i but when I see a deal like this one I am unable to see any of the good points that must be there and tend to see them more as potential threats to OSS, especially since it seems that OSS is starting (with ODF and others) to impact in markets that have traditionally been associated with Microsoft (either as a Microsoft Dominated area, or as a Microsoft Monopoly.)

      Anyway - As I said - this comment is not intended as FFUD or to start/further any myths - just a though

  2. Linfo.org Owned By Microsoft by Foofoobar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Microsoft has ever so recently started creating it's own 'pro-windows' Linux websites and putting up propoganda. Linfo.org is one of those sites. It's registered to an email of ips@connectexpress.com who do promotions for companies. The registrant is from Bellevue, Washington where half of the Microsoft campus is (Redmond is LITERALLY across the street).

    The phone number used for registering this site goes to an answering service. This is nothing more than a propoganda site sponsored by Microsoft

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    This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    1. Re:Linfo.org Owned By Microsoft by N.+P.+Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      Excuse my skepticism. I've never heard of you guys; I live in Seattle and go to the Seattle Java Users Group, PHP Meetup and a few others and have NEVER heard of the Bellevue Linux Users group.

      You live there? What are you doing December 12th?

      Barnes & Noble Downtown Bellevue 106th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA (425) 451-8463

      Go check 'em out. Report back to us what you find. (One darkly clothed guy with a win XP laptop surreptitiously uploading photos of anyone searching for the Bellevue LUG?)

      See: http://www.bellevuelinux.org/meeting.html