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De Icaza Regrets Novell/Microsoft Pact

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the win-some-lose-some dept.

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."

5 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Poor judgement by jhoger · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of course, anything can get you sued. It requires no action on your part other than existence. The bar is pretty damn low.

    Do you have any examples of where a company has been sued because one member of the management team stated a prefaced, personal opinion contrary to the corporate strategic decision?

    Yes he has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders and the corporation. But a personal opinion is unlikely to become a legal issue as long as he handles it right and the board is OK with it.

    (IANAL)

    -- John.

  2. Novell, sure. Miguel? Not in this lifetime, by trolltalk.com · · Score: 5, Informative

    He also said that neither Windows nor Linux are relevant in the long term, thanks to Web 2.0 business models

    And Miguel De Icaza hasn't been relevant for __DIETY__ knows how long. The original microsoftie wannabe shill-boy.

    --
    Kevin Smith on Prince
  3. Re:Ah. I see. by mrchaotica · · Score: 3, Informative

    It can say it but it'd be lying; with GPLv3 the pact becomes worthless.

    Only for the patents used by those projects that have adopted the GPLv3.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  4. Re:Ah. I see. by Bananenrepublik · · Score: 4, Informative

    Novell can say that it has the solution.

    It can say it but it'd be lying; with GPLv3 the pact becomes worthless. You may want to check the facts again. The GPLv3 explicitly didn't include provisions that apply retroactively, as would be the case in the Novell patent agreement. The GPLv3 authors did so because of this agreement.
  5. Re:No by leenks · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pretty much the whole compute facility runs open source operating systems.