Balmer says Linux uses Microsoft 'property'

klussier at comcast.net klussier at comcast.net
Sun Nov 19 08:31:32 EST 2006


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Ben Scott" <dragonhawk at gmail.com>
> On 11/18/06, Jefferson Kirkland <numberwhun at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Novell never once said, "Ok, so show me the code in question that
> > you say is yours and show me your patent of ownership. Then, we'll talk."
> 
>   Do we know that?  I thought the deal was made in private.
> 
>   You also have to remember, Novell's top management most likely sees
> this as a way to sell move SuSE licenses.  They might well regard this
> whole situation as a Good Thing.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Novell and M$ have been working together  for years. Novell licensed DOS as the boot loader for Netware pre NW 4. They have always had a working relationship with M$ as the client and Linux as the server.  This deal is just an extension of their pre-existing relationship. 

M$ threatening to sue is very different then SCO. SCO was claiming that IBM violated a contract, and they claimed to own patents that they didn't. Then, they threatened to sue the company (novell) that actually does own the patenets. M$ is going to simply claim that their intellectual property is in Linux. They are going to ignore the open source IP stack that they use in Windows. Of course, they might be right. They may have retroactively patented things that are in the Linux kernel, just so they could sue :-) No matter what happens, it will at least be interesting. After all,. trying to sue the Linux communitee should be fun to watch...

C-Ya,
Kenny


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