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De Icaza Regrets Novell/Microsoft Pact

Ian Lamont writes "Novell Vice President and GNOME architect Miguel de Icaza sounded off at a MIX 08 panel on a number of topics. First, he claimed that he was 'not happy' with Novell's cross-patent licensing agreement with Microsoft, saying that if he had his way, the company would have stayed with the open-source community. He also said that neither Windows nor Linux are relevant in the long term, thanks to Web 2.0 business models: 'They might be fantastic products ... but Google has shown itself to be a cash cow. There is a feature beyond selling corporate [software] and patents ... it's going to be owning end users.' He also tangled with Mike Schroepfer, a Mozilla engineering executive, about extending patent protection for Moonlight to third parties. However, de Icaza did say that Novell has 'done the best it could to balance open-source interests with patent indemnification.' We discussed the beginnings of the deal between Microsoft and Novell back in 2006."

2 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ah. I see. by hitmark · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    for a moment there i was sure it was RMS...

    --
    comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  2. Wait you mean Miguel was wrong...? by zhobson · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I love when this comes up... I get to trot out my old "Miguel has misjudged Microsoft" post.

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=27589&cid=2962653

    Still flamebait? YOU decide.