Microsoft (Probably) Didn't Just Buy Unix

jfruhlinger writes "Word came down this morning that when Attachmate bought Novell, certain intellectual property rights were sold to a Microsoft-led consortium as part of the deal. Since Unix is the most valuable piece of IP Novell owns, there was a certain amount of panic that suddenly Redmond is in charge of this foundational technology for Linux and a number of other open source projects. But, while MS is being cagey, Brian Proffitt doubts that Unix was part of the IP package that was sold — and believes that Linux would be safe even if it were."

Comments

Re:FUD parade continues on...

[h4rr4r]

Linux is not using Unix. It is unix-like, but that is about it. Also don't fix what ain't broke. Even MS is now admitting they must go that way with their powershell and even headless setup.

Re:Linux IS classified as a form of UNIX though...

[h4rr4r]

Forgot to mention, two articles written by two idiots does not change this fact.

Unix is a trademarked term that belongs to the open group, genetic unix would be the BSDs. Linux does not fall into either of these groups, it is only unix-like.

Re:I certainly hope so

[crazycheetah]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix

Re:What really happened - OIN Emasculated

[Bruce Perens]

882 patents, not 481. Sorry.

If you want the story, see Groklaw

[Nefarious Wheel]

www.groklaw.net. Pamela Jones is the Empress, the rightful dispenser of knowledge on who goeth there regarding Linux, the Law, and the great game called Follow The Money.

Except Novell didn't own unix

[tomhudson]

The Regents of Southern California would have a thing to say about that - the AT&T settlement made one thing clear - no one entity "owns" unix.

The University also claimed that similar lines of source code (which were presented during discovery) did not infringe on USL's copyright because they had become public domain by the actions of AT&T: AT&T had promoted UNIX as a standard, licensing it to universities and allowing UNIX source code to be published in textbooks. The University submitted briefs from the UC Berkeley students and staff, explaining how they had audited the code, looking for freely available copies of the source code and methods. When they could find none, they said, they removed the code and rewrote it using publicly known techniques—and so any remaining similarities existed because AT&T had effectively abandoned the copyright to them.

Novell didn't have to show they owned the rights to Unix in SCO vs Novell - just that, whatever rights they had, they didn't convey them to Santa Cruz.

So whatever they bought from AT&T, it wasn't "ALL right to Unix."

Re:They bought 882 Novell patents; Whither OIN?

[diegocg]

Well, just take a look. Novell was one of the companies that invented networking, so they have stuff that probably every modern OS is infringing. Active Directory very probably infringed some of them (that probably was one of the reasons why Microsoft signed a patent agreement with them). Just some examples:

Method and apparatus for network file recovery

Firewall system for quality of service management

Methods, data stores, data structures, and systems for electronic identity

System and method for automically authenticating a user in a distributed network system

Method and apparatus for proxy authentication

Secure intranet access

System and method for synchronizing database information

They even have some UI patents: Method for automatically resizing a child window

And some weird OS functionality Method and apparatus for mapping page table trees into virtual address space

Of course they are stupid, but god knows what can a good lawyer firm do with them.

Won't always work..

[Junta]

Sometimes a distro will muck with init setup so that prompts for root password.

However, there's a good chance init=/bin/sh will work (depending on initrd contents).

Booting a rescue image is probably the most bullet-proof way to do it, unless the root fs is encrypted in which case you're screwed unless you had a password that can be dictionary cracked.