During the last few months, the relation between Microsoft and the Linux community has become worse and worse. This is not a new debate though, it’s been going on since at least 2004. Back then Ballmer quoted a report that stated that Linux infringed on more than 200 patents. What Ballmer had missed was that the report was supposed to prove that Linux was not violating more patents than proprietary applications, which it also did. The so called 283 patent infringements are more or less all completely uninteresting, and none of them has been tested in court. The fact is that the report hints that it’s more feasible that proprietary applications are infringing more than Linux is.
If we turn today, and look at what patent experts are saying, it seems that Microsoft more or less is still referring to this and similar, articles and is trying to use them to their advantage, which just plain wrong. The patents in questions are either too old or too specific they are more or less irrelevant.
When the executive director of The Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin, had the chance of sharing his thoughts on the subject he was not gentle. During a phone interview with ITBusinessEdge, he said that it’s just a matter of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) by Microsoft, and a part of its constant campaign for inhibiting the migration of Windows users to Linux-based systems.
“I think existing cross-licenses would prevent it. Microsoft hasn’t said a word about AIX, Solaris, or any other operating system, so I presume that they wouldn’t do anything against Linux either. I just think this is a lot about Microsoft feeling threatened. Linking OpenOffice to this is another example of where Microsoft sees this huge cash cow being threatened and, as smart businessmen, they’re taking steps to slow down the threat. I think just in the next few weeks a lot of people in the industry will begin to see this as not a lot of new news, and a lot of hot air.”
At ConsortiumInfo they’ve published a Q&A that digs deeper and speculates why Microsoft has chosen not to reveal the patents in question. They discuss Microsoft’s license deals with Novell, Samsung and Dell, and dig deeper into what may behind all of this. Some very interesting reading for those who wants to speculate even more.
