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Xandros CEO Doesn�t Agree Linux is Patent Violator

Posted by Zonk on from the on-the-up-and-up dept.

whitehartstag writes with a link to a Network World article about statements from Xandros in the wake of their Microsoft deal. Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos made a point of stating that they don't believe their product violates any of Microsoft's patents. Nor, he said, did the software giant share with them exactly which patents they believe Linux violates. Just the same, he's disappointed with the reaction they've received from the open source community. "Feedback from the Linux community has been on the order of 'you shouldn't really be talking to the devil.' Linux and open-source advocates believe it is a big issue and say the Xandros deal, and another signed by Novell with Microsoft last year, erodes open source licensing provisions especially around intellectual property issues. Indeed, the Free Software Foundation is rewriting its GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0 to prohibit such patent deals in the future."

3 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Handy boilerplate, if this dumb trend continues by toby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Future submitters, just keep this text on hand the next time some idiot signs a deal with Microshaft:

    $COMPANY made a point of stating that they don't believe their product violates any of Microsoft's patents. Nor, $COMPANY said, did the software giant share with them exactly which patents they believe Linux violates. Just the same, $COMPANY is disappointed with the reaction they've received from the open source community.

    It's almost beyond belief that these guys keep giving the community a great big "FUCK YOU", and yet are always surprised when we don't welcome them as liberators, with flowers and open wallets.

    --
    you had me at #!
  2. Re:I disagree - but I know where you're coming fro by kebes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It looks like this company is actually helping the community. They're eliminating the fear that if their product is used, they, the customer, won't have to worry about the big bad MS coming after them.
    I guess the problem is that different people have different definitions of 'the community.' Xandros (and you) seem to think that 'the community' is "Xandros and their customers." Whereas others think that 'the community' is "the developers and the users of the software" (and note that those "users" may or may not be Xandros customers).

    So, in effect, Xandros is making a deal that puts their 'community' above the community at large, whereas I would argue that the intent of the GPL in general, and the open-source developers that use it, is to create something that the wider community (all developers, all users, including Xandros and their customers) will ultimately benefit from.

    I think that as long as companies like Novell and Xandros keep thinking of the community of only being made up of their paying customers, they are missing the point of free software and ultimately will be missing out on the crucial developments that they require to maintain profitability.
  3. These deals are not meant to "eliminate" fear by walterbyrd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just the opposite.

    Msft wants the public to believe that *only* novell and xandros can be used without fear. Where does that leave redhat, which has about 75% of the enterprise market? Or Debian, or Ubuntu, or Mandrake, or Slackware?

    The very fact that these deals are made makes Linux look dirtry - which is of course the idea. These companies take msft fud money to help msft imply that linux is a legal mine-field.