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openSUSE Hobbled By Microsoft Patents
kripkenstein writes "openSUSE 10.2 no longer enables ClearType (which would improve the appearance of fonts). The reason given on the openSUSE mailing list for not enabling it is, 'this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library.'
As reported on and discussed, this matter may be connected to the Microsoft-Novell deal. If so, Novell should have received a license for the Microsoft patents, assuming the deal covered all relevant patents. Does the license therefore extend only to SUSE, but not openSUSE?"
It's zed, not zee, in English.
I look forward to SuSE removing Mono (and hence GNOME) from OpenSuSE.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
> This is headed for a major court battle. In fact, it should be obvious that SCO is just the first.
I said this back when SCO sacrificed itself to try and take down Linux. Linux has been treading on thin ice for years. The programming landscape has been filled with copyrights and patents for decades and to try and develop an operating system, not to mention applications that don't use them is next to impossible. Lets face it, it tough to write 5 lines of code without violating some sort of a patent.
Today, you can only make a have baked OS and have half baked applications before you enter the patent and copyright mine field. Linux might be able to exist at the server level thanks to Unix's legacy but for it to make any progress on the desktop, its going to have to start licensing these expensive technologies. Many of these technologies are reserved by companies like Microsoft and you can bet Linux will not get a free ride licensing them. Look at what SCO wanted to do to Linux. They intentionally priced their SCO-Linux license so that Linux would become the most expensive small server OS by a wide margin. SCO wasn't going to just license Linux, they were going to bury Linux.
I think this is what Microsoft wants to do. I'm sure Apple and others are in the same boat. The idea is to restrict certain technologies to the point where Linux looks like Windows 3.1 in functionality and thus preserve their desktop monopoly.
In my opinion, open/free Linux is still 5-10 years behind Windows and OSX in terms of desktop functionality and these hurdles aren't going to allow the gap to close any time soon. On the other hand, enterprise versions of Linux, that can license these technologies, are so expensive, they really aren't an alternative to Windows on the desktop.
If it weren't for IBM backing Linux, it would be dead today. Microsoft, SCO and others would have patent-infringed Linux back to the stone ages. Clearly IBM's presence has kept a lot of this from happening. But as OSS and Linux become more popular, its clear the lawsuits will start coming fast and furious. We've only seen the beginning of this.