They should be given the chance to redeem themselves or at least clear the air on what they really signed.
What if the "insider" access to Microsoft's patent arsenal were to be used to get rid of *real* patent violations in the Linux kernel and/or Samba and/or <some other piece of important software here>? Wouldn't that be great? If instead of grabbing the pitchforks and going on witch hunts, people actually lobbied Novell to do this kind of thing (if possible), in the end everybody would win. Well, maybe not Microsoft because then they couldn't use the patent FUD.
Actually, I see a much bigger need to be able to access information than to be able to run old applications. The big problem in all of this is that a lot (if not all) legacy applications have closed data repositories so being able to run those applications in a modern OS is imperative.
Slashdot Mirror
The price you pay for not having more up-to-date applications that are able to do something with that data is an OS that's hard as hell to maintain.
Actually, I see a much bigger need to be able to access information than to be able to run old applications. The big problem in all of this is that a lot (if not all) legacy applications have closed data repositories so being able to run those applications in a modern OS is imperative.