[PLUG] Pigs flying II

Ed Sawicki ed at alcpress.com
Thu Nov 2 23:36:40 UTC 2006


I just viewed the joint Microsoft/Novell announcement.
The core of the announcement is that Novell has agreed
to compensate Microsoft for its Intellectual Property.
When customers buy Novell SuSE Linux, they pay an
"upfront balancing payment" that earns them a patent
covenant from Microsoft.

Steve Balmer made it clear that if you buy or use
something other than Novell SuSE Linux, you will have
no such covenant and will be at risk.

I'm wondering how this is different that the license
fee SCO offered for Linux users. This announcement seems
to guarantee Microsoft a revenue stream from Linux sales.

Microsoft promised not to bring action against Open Source
developers - all developers apparently - not just those
who develop for SuSE Linux.

They also announced technical cooperation on things
like virtualization technologies, interoperability,
and document formats (Office/OpenOffice interoperability).

Ed Sawicki


More information about the PLUG mailing list