Turbolinux Is Latest To Sign Microsoft Pact

mytrip sends word that Turbolinux has followed Novell, Linspire, and Xandros in signing a patent and technology agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft pledged not to sue Turbolinux's users for patent infringement. Turbolinux, headquartered in Japan, sells Linux systems mostly in emerging markets such as China and India. The Betanews story speculates on some of the technology benefits Turbolinux might get out of the deal.

Comments

Turbolinux?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're still around?

Re:Turbolinux?

[adolf]

Sliding into obscurity?

In order for that to happen, the item must first have been something other than obscure.

The last time I heard mention of Turbolinux, every distribution was obscure (and most of them still are). That Turbolinux continues to remain obscure while others have become somewhat more common does not mean that it's sliding anywhere, but is instead only an indication that it turned stagnant a long time go.

Re:Turbolinux?

[Chowder Face]

Wow, so much hate. Is there anybody out there who actually works in an IT shop in Japan? No? Just me? Okay.

The only two viable Linux distributions at the enterprise Level are Red Hat, and Turbolinux (sorry Vine). But Turbolinux has been on the decline for some time, and due to the growing intrest in Ubuntu and SuSE Turbolinux is feeling the squeeze.

I think that this deal could be huge for Turbolinux. You have to understand, MS is the norm, the standard, the *everything* in Japan. Linux exists but it is waaay fringe, fringe stuff. The company I work for is looking to upgrade an enterprise wide system (everything is MS here), so naturally I see it as a perfect opportunity to begin to integrate Linux/Open Source and the benefits that come with doing so. We've been talking to a lot of big vendors. When I ask them their stance on open source they laugh at me. They litterally laugh at me. They tell me something to the effect that "this is Japan; Japan is Microsoft." They gave me blank stares when I asked them if they knew what "Ubuntu" or "MySQL" was (well, one or two people knew what MySQL was). None of the vendor solutions we have seen so far is compatible with non-MS/Oracle technology.

So given the assumption that Japan is a Microsoft world, if you wanted to integrate Linux wouldn't you want to use a distribution that played nicely with your existing MS infastructure with minimal hassle? Wouldn't you want a distribution developed in your native country by people who understand Japanese culture? (And beleive me, Japanese corporate culture is waaaay different from Western corporate cultures). Of course you would--to a Japanese "salaryman" it is a no-brainer issue.

With this latest move by Turbolinux, my company is now considering the viability of incorporating Turbolinux into our infrastructure. We will be running tests. Maybe we'll go with Turbolinux, maybe we won't. Either way, this is a good move for Turbolinux (how MS will benefit remains to be seen...).

My list keeps growing

[Araxen]

On Linux distro's that I'll never install or support.

who??

[dartmongrel]

yup, yet another insignificant distro took some bucks to be the latest FUD. Well done M$FT, I'm so scared that I'm formatting my drive right now to reinstall XP. /sarcasm Wake me up if a real distro like Red Hat Debian or Slackware SELL OUT, at which point I will simply start using OpenBSD on my desktop in addition to my server. This is FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD!

Tiny Trend

[markdavis]

So, other than Novell, many of the "tiny" Linuxes (those with the least user base), seem interested in trying to attach their wagons to the Microsoft train.

I, for one, am not all THAT surprised, but neither all that concerned, either. The message from the other LARGER Linux distros like Redhat, Canonical, and Mandriva, have all have a clear message: ***NO*** If one of those were to fall for it, I would be VERY concerned.

Show us the infringing patents, Microsoft.... we are still waiting...

Trying to gain more visiblity?

[turnipsatemybaby]

It seems to me that, with the exception of Novell, the distros signing up for this thing are all small-time distros with relatively small user bases.

I can't grok what Novell could possibly have been thinking, but it would make sense for the less popular distros to align with microsoft as they instantly become newsworthy and generate more interest.

Has there *ever* been a slashdot story on TurboLinux prior to this? If there was it certainly wasn't recently.

Re:Trying to gain more visiblity?

[mc moss]

Ok, I'm a complete noob when it comes to Linux and open sourse. How can microsoft sue people who are using open source software? I thought the whole point is that the community works on it together or something to continually make it better and distribute for free among themselves.

Pat

[turgid]

When Pat sells out, the fat lady will be singing. Not before.

Until then, get busy living.

Re:huh?

[pluther]

Turbolinux has users?

had

Totally unnecessary.

[unity100]

1 - Linux does not infringe upon anything microsoft. Even if it did, if microsoft brought any lawsuit on the matter, the capital behind linux defense would be so immense due to big corps and foundations and even governments giving a shoulder to it that, it would eventually end up like sco case.

2 - Microsoft vs linux is a lost case for microsoft in europe. Eu favors linux, loves it, encourages it from underhand. Eu dislikes microsoft practices. (evident from latest rulings) And even some governments in europe heavily invest in linux. (some french govt agencies, some states in germany, central europeans and so on).

3 - Big markets for software are, U.S., Eu, China, Southeast asia general, Japan. Eu is lost to microsoft. In eu, companies play with eu rules, not their own. China is a communist party dicta, if microsoft goes foul with them (and they dare not) poooooof - a country that can put out 28 million out on duty to inform on great firewall breakers can field a million programmers to weed out microsoft code from linux and come up with their own distro, and then oust microsoft for good. noone can raise an objection, its communist party - you gotta stomach it. Southeast asia is a mixed pot, where ms can win, it can lose in someplace else, and they are so accustomed to piracy that they wouldnt care whether linux infringed upon microsoft and their govt ruled against it or not. That leaves only US and Japan as playgrounds for microsoft. in u.s. only, ms can put a strong lawsuit, but, as said, in here there is much capital to defend linux that microsoft dare not do it either. i wont name names and companies and foundations here, but you know them all already. So, there is only japan. the only weak place against microsoft is japan, and korea, and that japanese company did the only viable thing they could do. i dont blame them.

Who?

[hitmanWilly1337]

Who is turbolinux again? Oh, and btw, they can kiss any gpl3 stuff goodbye now. And unlike novell, i seriously doubt they have the resources to fork it themselves.

Re:Queen

[steveoc]

Ill have a crack at this too .. another more obscure Queen song

Keep Passing the Open Windows

Yeah Baby, thats gotta be the one !!

http://www.pemcom.demon.co.uk/queen/works/windows.html

And the problem is?

[dpastern]

None of these distros have any real percentage of users. Turbolinux has been all but dead for a long while. Novell Linux is a joke, but then, so is Novell. Linspire, no better. Xandros, no better either. Just ignore them, don't buy their shit, oops, I mean distributions. Again, this is why the Linux kernel MUST be moved to GPL v3. This would cut this patent bullshit from Microsoft out, or at least force these parasites to bloody well fucking fork their own kernels under a GPL v2 release.

Linus is a stubborn, cowardic fool.

Dave

Re:huh?

[Rogerborg]

And the good news for them is, they'll be among the last to be sued by Microsoft.