IBM Weighs In On Novell — Microsoft Deal

Azul writes "In an interview, Scott Handy, IBM's VP of Worldwide Linux and Open Source, has stated IBM's position on the recent Novell-Microsoft agreement. According to Handy, Novell has been quite clear that they had never agreed that Microsoft had any proof of Microsoft patent violations in Linux." From the article: "'IBM has long supported interoperability between Windows and Linux. As supporters of open source and open standards, we applaud any effort to bridge this gap.' ... Looking ahead, Handy said that despite the outcry in some circles about Novell's deal with Microsoft, IBM will be making 'No change in our partnership with Novell ... IBM has two strategic Linux partners, Red Hat and Novell. This has served us very well for seven-years. Over 90 percent of the Linux server market now belongs to those two companies and the industry has consolidated around those two leaders,' he added."

And i though...

[El Lobo]

This reminds me the cool war. MS is coming! They will eat your children! Stop the freaking FUD. Live and let live...

If Deal Offends You, Sign Petition by Bruce Perens

[rubycodez]

There's an open petition to Novell's CEO [techp.org] by Bruce Perens protesting the Microsoft-Novell deal, signing requires registering with your name and email address.

Debian is the second largest GNU/Linux distro

[Anonymous Coward]

"Over 90 percent of the Linux server market now belongs to those two companies and the industry has consolidated around those two leaders,' he added."

From the Netcraft's GNU/Linux distribution share [netcraft.com] stats:
RH - 34%,
Debian - 25%
Suse - 11 %

82% of all statistics is made up.

IBM LOEV PATENTS

[RLiegh]

Something really, really bothers me about where the conversation usually goes when discussing the recent MS/Novell deal.And that's that some fanboi usually pipes up and says "Well, if MS sues Linux IBM will step up and defend us with their army of patent lawyers".

This is a very, very false hope, it's also really unlikely.

What the people who say this are forgetting is that IBM was the behemoth before MS was, and they didn't accumalate that patent portfolio just because they liek to collect stuff. IBM were royal fuckers, and just because they've been dabbling about with SuSE for a couple of years doesn't mean that they are going to take on someone with the portfolio and legal power of MS (which is large enough to put IBM in a world of pain).

IBM likes linux
but IBM LOVES patents

It's a LOT more likely that if MS started making legal threats against non-suse distributors, IBM would simply switch over to an MS-approved Linux and let everyone else fend for themselves.

IBM is not your savior, don't look in that corner for hope, it ain't there.

Re:If Deal Offends You, Sign Petition by Bruce Per

[Bruce Perens]

That means the GPL text. The point is that the entire GPL, and section 7 in particular, binds the community of people who redistribute the software to stand together against a patent aggressor rather than sell out individually and thus weaken the rest of the community against that aggressor. Novell and Microsoft knew clearly what the spirit of the document was, and crafted a legal fiction of covenants to each other's users that has the same effect as the licenses in order to (maybe) sneak within a hair of the letter. In other words, they engineered a loophole to get around Novell's earlier agreement with the many developers of GPL software in their distribution.

In short, we feel that Novell has acted in bad faith.

Bruce

Please, Stop This

[Karma Sucks]

You are conveniently forgetting that this Nat Friedman was at the forefront of this deal. If anyone is part of this community, it's Nat. Need I tell you what Nat has done for GNOME? If anyone represents the community it is Nat and I am sure Miguel de Icaza was not far behind him in his support. By these attacks on Novell, you are attacking the community itself and this will likely lead to splintering it.

Besides, if you feel so strongly that Novell has acted in bad faith, why don't you just sue them instead of running yet another useless petition which is not likely to accomplish anything at all?

Re:Maybe Not....

[Bruce Perens]

Since Eben Moglen seems to think that changes are needed to GPLv3 in order to "prevent this from happening in the future" ... the GPLv2 must not be adequate. Either you are wrong or he is. Who is it?

I flew to NY to discuss this whole issue with Eben last week. First, the Novell-Microsoft is clearly outside of the spirit of the GPL and thus demonstrates bad faith on Novell's part. Is it within the letter? Novell and Microsoft say so, and obviously took a lot of time to engineer it to just slip within a hair of the letter. I think that Novell and Microsoft would like to drag us into an expensive and ultimately fruitless fight. Rather than take it to court, and spend a lot of money on something that will be ambiguous for years, we will make it very, very clear that this is NOT within either the letter or the spirit of GPL3 and LGPL3. And then a lot of stuff that Novell needs will go under those licenses, and Novell will be stuck with the entire version of maintaining obsolete forks without the help of the community.

Bruce

Re:If Deal Offends You, Sign Petition by Bruce Per

[Bruce Perens]

Aw darn. That'll teach me to bypass "preview". Here it is again, with the typo removed.

What I don't find is any wording that would prevent a third party from providing indemnity to those users, which is what Microsoft is doing.

Microsoft is not providing an indemnity. They are providing a promise not to sue regarding their own patents.

In contrast, companies that provide indemnities, like Red Hat, are not the holders of the patents that they are protecting you from.

So, Microsoft in this case is sort of like the extortionist who makes you pay protection money so that they won't break your store window. What Red Hat and other companies who indemnify are doing, in contrast, is much more benign because Red Hat's not out to hurt you, they're giving you some support if a third party not affiliated with Red Hat attacks you.

Bruce