Open Source Weblog

“We’ve struck a deal under which we can provide patent agreements to Linux customers in which Microsoft’s intellectual property is respected, and we are appropriately compensated for the use of our intellectual property,” said Steve Ballmer during the launch, undermining the Novell’s statement that Linux does not infringe Microsoft’s patents and both companies’ position that no cross-licensing agreement had taken place.

The danger with Novell’s deal, from an open source industry perspective, is that Microsoft can use it as a stick to beat the other vendors in to line. ‘What do you mean there’s no patent issues with open source? Novell thought there was.’ A prize to the first person who spots this type of FUD in the wild.

Microsoft had already started raising the spectre of a patent risk for other distributions, again before the joint press conference had concluded. Maybe Ballmer’s turn of phrase is unfortunate, but sometimes he can’t seem to avoid sounding like a protection racketeer.

“If people want to have patent peace and interoperability, they’ll look at Novell’s SUSE Linux,” he said. “If they make other choices, they have all of the compliance and intellectual property issues associated with that.”

These sort of comments might be good for Microsoft and are bad for open source, but where do they leave Novell? Is it a willing or unwilling participant in the FUD-spreading? Francese would have us believe that the company’s intentions are good, and I have no reason to doubt him, it’s just that partnering with Microsoft always has been, and always will be, a double-edged sword.

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