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."

At least IBM..

[Anonymous Coward]

.. Isn't falling for the FUD and they're standing next to their partners. Given that announcement and what SCO just went through with IBM, maybe this will make Microsoft think twice before pushing the issue..

Re:interesting that...

[radar bunny]

think Novell's marked share will go down in the home sector

I think this is the primary point of division on the entire MS/Novell deal. There are several ways in which the linux community is divided; anything from KDE to GNOME, from Redhat to slackware, and so on. One less mentioned division is between the home user and the corporate user. Over the past 2-4 years the larger players in the marker (redhat, novell, suse, ibm) have all be moving more and more of the resourves towards courting the corporate users. The reasons for this is many. For one, with a single corporate deal they can sell several hundred to several thousand systems where as with a single home user deal they sell 1 system. Secondly, most of the money for Linux distros comes not from the selling of the system but the selling of support for that system. The home user doesnt want to buy support, they want to by the OS, and have it work right out of thebox by pushing a mere 2-3 buttons .

I think this is why the MS/ Novell deal has struck such a chord with the /. users. Its a kind of "betrayal" because the /. user made linux popular, and now that it is popular, Linux is moving away from this user and towards the corporate user. These people feel left out, and left behind.

just my $.02

Re:Duh

[Anonymous Coward]

No; There is only one reason IBM plays down the patents. IBMs greatest fear is that the patent system will be shut down. They are the only company in existence which can afford to make serious money from patents. Patent trolls can't because they could easily be shut down by legislation (10s of millions is not serious money; just calculate how few lawyers you can keep on that). Microsoft can't because their patents are mostly jokes and are _all_ dependend on IBM patents. This leaves only IBM and a few telecomms companies who also have claims to early computing technology.

The thing which is most interesting is that IBM could just say "we will sue Microsoft's customers out of existence, starting from the most important and working down; stopping only when we reach our own customers, and only in the case where we consider them as important customers". They never say this and they never ever even hint at it. It almost makes you think that Microsoft's strategy is deliberately designed to bring patents into disrepute and IBM is trying to keep the whole situation calm. Think about how much Microsoft loses on patents each year (billions? tens of billions?) compared to the money they make (a few million). Do you really think they can affort to see pantents become more important?

Conspiration Theory

[OpenSourced]

What if Novell was simply used by Microsoft as a proxy for buying SUSE ? Perhaps everything was already prepared when Novell adquired SUSE. It would have been certainly much more difficult and expensive for Microsoft to attempt the deal. After all, it was just three years ago. The round number (almost exactly 3 years) is also suspicious.

I'm not following this too much, so if this conspiration theory has already been aired, just mod me down. If not, I require full bragging rights for it :o)

No, we're not stopping this!

[bmo]

"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."

Miguel and the Mono crowd have been splintering the Linux community all by themselves. .NET for Linux? And now this "special" deal for Novell customers indemnifying them against Microsoft lawsuits?

Miguel and the rest of the Ximian and Mono team should just pack their bags and get the fuck out. This whole deal with Novell and Microsoft was only possible with their help, and probable instigation. I've had misgivings about .NET on Linux ever since the idea was suggested by Miguel and the worst fears have been verified by this new Novell/Microsoft contract.

Would Miguel swear on his dead ancestors graves that Mono doesn't infringe on Microsoft patents?

"Similar deals have been done in the past, in 1997 Microsoft signed a similar deal with Apple, and Apple used that agreement and the incoming monies to turn the company around.
Sun signed a similar agreement with Microsoft in 2004, which at the time I realized enabled Sun to ship Mono on Solaris (which we already supported at that time)."

That's directly from Miguel's blog at http://tirania.org/blog/ [tirania.org] [tirania.org]

Come again, Miguel? If mono is truely Open Source and non-infringing, what did Sun actually buy from Microsoft?

Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK?

--
BMO