Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal’s Nick Wingfield broke a story on Microsoft selling a group of patents to a third party. The end result of this story is good for Linux, even though it doesn’t placate fears of ongoing attacks by Microsoft. Open Invention Network, working with its members and the Linux Foundation, pulled off a coup, managing to acquire some of the very patents that seem to have been at the heart of recent Microsoft FUD campaigns against Linux. Break out your white hats: the good guys won.
The details are that Microsoft assembled a package of patents “relating to open source” and put them up for sale to patent trolls. Microsoft thought they were selling them to AST, a group that buys patents, offers licenses to its members, and then resells the patents. AST calls this their “catch and release” policy. Microsoft would certainly have known that the likely buyer when AST resold their patents in a few months would be a patent troll that would use the patents to attack non-member Linux companies. Thus, by selling patents that target Linux, Microsoft could help generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Linux, without needing to attack the Linux community directly in their own name.
This deal shows the mechanisms the Linux industry has constructed to defend Linux are working, even though the outcome also shows Microsoft to continue to act antagonistically to its customers.
We can be thankful that these patents didn’t fall into the hands of a patent troll who has no customers and thus cares not about customer or public backlash. Luckily the defenses put in place by the Linux industry show that collaboration can result in great things, including the legal protection of Linux.
The reality is that Windows and Linux will both remain critical parts of the world’s computing infrastructure for years to come. Nearly 100% of Fortune 500 companies support deployments of both Windows and Linux. Those customers, who have the ear of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, need to tell Microsoft that they do not want Microsoft’s patent tricks to interfere with their production infrastructure. It’s time for Microsoft to stop secretly attacking Linux while publicly claiming to want interoperability. Let’s hope that Microsoft decides going forward to actually try to win in the marketplace, rather than
continuing to distract and annoy us with their tricky patent schemes. And, let’s offer a big round of applause to Keith Bergelt and OIN, for their perfectly executed defense of the Linux community.
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Microsoft really annoy me, not only is their software bugged, patchy and insecure… They try little tricks to take over the market.
Don’t they realize that competition is healthy in commercialism?
Well done to the people involved in stopping this underhand attempt.
Keep going Linux and OSS producers, your work is well made and enjoyed.
Charlie
[…] http://www.linux-foundation.org/weblogs/jzemlin/2009/09/09/protecting-linux-from-microsoft-yes-micr… a few seconds ago from Twhirl […]
When Microsoft and Novell signed their so called interoperability agreement in November 2006, Novell needed to jumpstart its Linux operating system. Sales had been flat for several quarters. Microsoft said that it was interested in interoperating with Novell’s Linux OS. In reality, Microsoft hoped to drive a wedge in the hearts of the Linux and open source communities. And that is still Microsoft’s goal. Microsoft’s so-called desire to work with the open source community is driven on the back side by its desire to avoid looking like the company that it really is, backstabbing its partners and doing anything that it can to prevent open competition in the industry. The interesting thing is that Microsoft does not have to do this. It has about a 94% client OS market share with Windows 7 showing promise and it has an over 70% server OS market share with Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V also showing promise. We say that people who act like Microsoft are insecure. I think that this is the case with Microsoft. It will be interesting to see what Novell’s relationship is with Microsoft once the Certs are all gone and Microsoft tires of Novell.
Well done all the people who pulled this off. Sometimes I do find the whole anti-Microsoft thing more trouble than it’s worth. Companies and organisations shouldn’t need to defend themselves like this. But in a world where adding the words “by means of a computer” can get you a patent on anything even before the product concept has been fleshed out properly, we have no choice.
It’s good that the people and organisations and companies in the Linux community that can contribute in this way do contribute. It means the rest of us can get on with making our own contributions whatever they may be.
[…] a Microsoft foi apanhada e a Open Invention Network (OIN) estava atenta e conseguiu adquirir estas patentes. A OIN é uma […]
“It has about a 94% client OS market share with Windows 7 showing promise and it has an over 70% server OS market share with Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V also showing promise.”
Please provide a link to that figure, it seems rather high.
[…] plot thickened as we heard from FOSS defender Eben Moglen, from Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin and from vendor Red Hat, that Microsoft may have been shopping the patents around to would-be […]
[…] plot thickened as we heard from FOSS defender Eben Moglen, from Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin and from vendor Red Hat, that Microsoft may have been shopping the patents around to would-be […]
Why the Linux foundation would bother ? If you breach pattents you should pay for it and correct it. If you do not breach then why bother ? Microsoft (OS), Google (Search) have high share because user choose their solutions over competition. At the time CP/M then Mac/OS or OS-2 has their chance. Same in Search. It is time that the Linux foundation focused on developping great solutions also it may be too late already as Android/Chrome but also SalesForce/Amazon illustrate that the battle is likely not on the OS anymore but in both the Cloud & the browser. Wake-up and pick the rigth battles, the world is moving.
Protegiendo Linux de Microsoft…
Los detalles son que Microsoft creó un paquete de patentes relacionadas con el codigo abierto y las puso en venta para patent trolls. Microsoft pensaba que estaba vendiendo las patentes a AST, un grupo que compra patentes, ofrece licencias a sus miem…
Hello,
I really like this post. I will try to safe my linux from Microsoft.
Good Information. Thanks for Sharing Information
Regards,
Mihir
ask4itsolutions.com
Can anybody at the Linux Foundation explain exactly why Novell has not been ejected from the Linux Foundation?
Jim– Microsoft executives don’t start their press conferences or internal meetings by saying “The reality is that Windows and Linux will both remain critical parts of the world’s computing infrastructure for years to come.”
It might be helpful (and appropriate) for Fortune 500 CTO’s to tell Microsoft to back off. But the Linux Foundation shouldn’t give up on the goal of ousting Microsoft– Microsoft clearly isn’t giving up on the goal of eradicating GNU/Linux.
Even if victory is a long shot, that’s what we should be aiming for.
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