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Microsoft has OS patents; Linux has none ~ Perspective: by Peter Yared ~ CNET
CNET ^ | December 4, 2006 | Peter Yared

Posted on 12/06/2006 10:26:45 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

perspective

The uproar in the open-source community over Microsoft's embrace of Novell says a lot.

It reveals that many open-source backers fundamentally don't understand the software business. When vendors compete, customers win. This is good.

Contrary to the numerous rants in the open-source community, the recent deal between Microsoft and Novell--in which the companies have agreed to interoperability, reselling and patent protection--is actually an excellent business deal and a good thing for the open-source community.

The days of kumbaya, where vendors are locked arm in arm singing open-source love songs to "grow the market" through co-opetition are over.

Microsoft is growing up after its antitrust issues. It is actually listening to its customers. Chief information officers have been telling Microsoft for years that they are sick of interoperability issues and that Microsoft has to stop acting like a big baby and learn to play well with others. The good news here is that Linux is now woven into the business fabric of every major company.

The reality of the technology business is that virtually every deal between big companies includes bilateral patent protection. Company A cross-licenses its patents with Company B. Neither acknowledges that the other is ripping off any intellectual property. Rather, each now has a finger on a legal atomic football that threatens to blow up both businesses if either goes to court to litigate for some bogus market advantage.

What usually keeps these companies from suing each other over patents is this legal notion of mutually assured destruction, since each company has patent libraries that overlap the other's cash cow products. When these companies do deals with each other, it is standard operating procedure to codify this presumptive way of doing business into the agreement--hence bilateral patent protection.

Microsoft's first deal in this new era of cooperation was with Sun Microsystems. Sun dropped its antitrust complaint (accepting a $2 billion check from Microsoft as part of the deal), and the companies pledged interoperability between their products. This deal quite naturally also included bilateral patent protection between Microsoft and Sun.

It did not, however, cover open-source developers. So let's say you download an open-source project like the NetBeans tool from Sun, add some cool features and redistribute your version of the tool. You have now violated hundreds of Microsoft patents on tools, and they can come after you.

It should be of no surprise to anyone that Microsoft holds numerous patents that Linux violates--it's just that polite company in the software industry won't say this aloud. You see, Microsoft hired folks like Dave Cutler out of DEC to build Windows NT, and it is actually an industrial-class operating system.

It originally included things like HAL (the hardware abstraction layer) that let it run on multiple processors including the PowerPC. I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not claiming that Linux violates any specific multiple-processor patent for Microsoft, but the odds are pretty much 100 percent that a good attorney from Redmond could build many different infringement cases that could go a long way in our court system.

In the Novell and Microsoft deal, many industry insiders are whining about commercial implementations, but I don't know what people expect Microsoft to do. Should they indemnify everyone who downloads and extends the Linux kernel from Novell from all of its patents?

If they did that, Red Hat could start getting the Linux kernel from Novell, be indemnified from all Microsoft operating-system patents and then sue Microsoft for the relatively few operating-system patents it has. Many of the whiners overlook what is significant about this deal. For the first time, one of these patent agreements also covers individual open-source developers.

A lot of people are saying Novell is paying "royalties" to Microsoft. Microsoft is paying Novell $108 million for Novell's patents, and Novell is paying Microsoft $40 million for Microsoft's patents. Or if you can do simple math, Microsoft is paying Novell $68 million for the patent agreement and then hundreds of millions more for Novell Suse Linux licenses and marketing expenses. Novell definitely came out on top here.

While the devil will be in the details, this deal is a good thing, and Red Hat should also do a similar deal with Microsoft. The interoperability commitment and bilateral patent protection is a good thing for customers that run Linux and Windows (every large technology customer). The patent protection is a good thing for open-source developers that extend the open-source projects covered under the agreements, since they now get more protection than they had before.

And I predict that this announcement has already forced every other major software company (BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, SAP and others) to now consider similar deals to offer customers and developers some form of patent protection and indemnification. They have to do something, or the competitors that move first will take business away from them. Whether they announce these deals in public news conferences or offer similar protections quietly in the background to their customers, they'll have to do something.

Linux has won, and it's time to let the next phase begin. The days of kumbaya, where vendors are locked arm in arm singing open-source love songs to "grow the market" through co-opetition are over.

The software business is a ruthless business. Linux is now so important that technology vendors are fighting for competitive advantage over their peers. It's ugly. It's competition. And it's good for customers.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: linux
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1 posted on 12/06/2006 10:26:48 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: All
This should have been the Title:

Linux is now so important that technology vendors are fighting for competitive advantage over their peers.

2 posted on 12/06/2006 10:27:58 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: N3WBI3; ShadowAce

fyi


3 posted on 12/06/2006 10:29:00 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Linux fans should be happy about the MS move, not fearful...
Now only if they could get Adobe to help out also.
4 posted on 12/06/2006 10:50:52 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
ALL YOUR DISTROS ARE BELONG TO US.

LINUX IS ON THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION.

 

5 posted on 12/06/2006 10:50:54 AM PST by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Swordmaker; antiRepublicrat
OMG!! Check this out!!
CSIRO demonstrates world’s fastest wireless link

CSIRO researchers will today demonstrate the fastest and most efficient wireless link ever achieved.

The CSIRO ICT Centre today announced that it has achieved over 6 gigabits per second over a point to point wireless connection with the highest efficiency (2.4bits/s/Hz) ever achieved for such a system.

Multi-gigabit links operate at speeds that leave current wireless networks far behind. For example the entire works of Shakespeare could be transmitted over this 6 gigabit link in under seven thousandths of a second or a full DVD movie in just over three quarters of a second.

At the demonstration today, the team will transmit 16 simultaneous streams of DVD quality video over a 250 metre link with no loss of quality or delays. This impressive demonstration nevertheless only utilises one quarter of the capacity of the link.

Dr Jay Guo, Director of the Wireless Technologies Laboratory at CSIRO said that this breakthrough is just a first stage towards direct connections of up to 12 gigabits per second.

Read more at the link, GO AUSSIES!

6 posted on 12/06/2006 11:15:56 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

7 posted on 12/06/2006 11:22:08 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Echo Talon

It's gonna fry some endangered bug,....I just know it...


8 posted on 12/06/2006 11:27:55 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
It's gonna fry some endangered bug,....I just know it...

LOL!!!!!

9 posted on 12/06/2006 11:29:11 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Swordmaker; antiRepublicrat; Jim Robinson

BTW, My FR Anniversary is tomorrow... but I will be heading back to MN so I'm not sure if I will be available tomorrow. ;)


10 posted on 12/06/2006 11:33:03 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: Incorrigible
SCO was trying....from Groklaw:

Why the Novell Deal is Bad & SCO's Memo in Support of Motion for SJ: We Did Not Breach the GPL

******************************AN EXCERPT ***********************************

However, there is a concerted effort, in my opinion, to destroy the GPLv2, death by a thousand cuts and compromises. I think they'd like to do to Linux what they did to Unix. The GPL stands in their proprietary way, so they are doing all they can dream up to overthrow it or get around it with cleverness. That is one reason we need GPLv3, obviously.

Here is one extreme example, SCO's contribution to the effort. It's important to remember, as you watch SCO try to persuade the court that it didn't do what it did, or that the GPL doesn't mean what it says and what its authors say it means, that this was one of the prime goals of this litigation:

11 posted on 12/06/2006 11:41:44 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Incorrigible
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
12 posted on 12/06/2006 12:09:29 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I sort of agree the Novell deal is great for Linux. Its not nearly enough for me to get off of RedHat but if I had no in place agreements and infrastructure I would think about going with them.

But I think the whole IP boogy man has been somewhat defanged by the SCO fiasco..


13 posted on 12/06/2006 12:21:56 PM PST by N3WBI3 ("Help me out here guys: What do you do with someone who wont put up or shut up?" - N3WBI3)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Gates runs UBUNTU on his home PC! ;^)


14 posted on 12/06/2006 2:58:57 PM PST by Abcdefg
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Microsoft has OS patents; Linux has none

But IBM has more than anyone else. We're seeing right now with SCO what happens when someone threatens IBM's business.

15 posted on 12/06/2006 4:17:01 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Abcdefg

I have that up and running right here,...the latest one out today....


16 posted on 12/06/2006 5:28:17 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I think Ubuntu is ready for the average user's desktop. I'm sure Gates uses it!


17 posted on 12/07/2006 2:10:21 PM PST by Abcdefg
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To: antiRepublicrat

IBM's gross income and stock market cap are both down since the SCO lawsuit began. Don't expect a bump even if they win either. IBM's back focusing on AIX, from using it on their next generation supercomputers to working on a unified UNIX spec.


18 posted on 12/07/2006 9:20:38 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Abcdefg

You're obviously confused with Bill Clinton.

http://politics.netscape.com/story/2006/09/29/clinton-all-you-need-is-ubuntu


19 posted on 12/07/2006 9:26:09 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: N3WBI3

Looks like many others are considering switching off Red Hat as well.

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2006/12/07/red-hat-pacific-crest-survey-finds-red-hat-customers-willing-to-stayfor-a-price/


20 posted on 12/07/2006 9:32:13 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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