There’s a rumour circulating that Ubuntu is in discussions with Microsoft aimed at an agreement along the lines they have concluded recently with Linspire, Xandros, Novell etc. Unfortunately, some speculation in the media posited that “Ubuntu might be next”.
For the record, let me state my position, and I think this is also roughly the position of Canonical and the Ubuntu Community Council though I haven’t caucused with the CC on this specifically.
We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements.
Allegations of “infringement of unspecified patents” carry no weight whatsoever. We don’t think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together. A promise by Microsoft not to sue for infringement of unspecified patents has no value at all and is not worth paying for. It does not protect users from the real risk of a patent suit from a pure-IP-holder (Microsoft itself is regularly found to violate such patents and regularly settles such suits). People who pay protection money for that promise are likely living in a false sense of security.
Seems pretty clear to me.
Rock on!
It’s called racketeering in some countries.
Amen Mark! MS is doing nothing more than trying to scare and bully the Linux community with it’s threats. The Redmond camp finally sees the writing on the wall and realizes that Linux is indeed a threat to their livelihood.
Good! There are already too many distros I can’t use anymore.
fact is, ms is simply keeping quiet about what its patents are because if it disclosed them, the open source community would simply create workarounds for them, but do so with speed that ms for all its money and power couldn’t touch, and then microsoft would no longer have an ace up its sleeve.
they’re just taking a tip from the bully in grade school, try to scare the smaller kids into giving up their lunch money and beat up the rest — oh wait, that’s the riaa.
I want it to go to Court.
I want the Judge, to have MS open ALL of the MS OS, to the PUBLIC.
IF it was copyrighted, WOULD/doesnt it need to be documented in the Copyright OFFICE???
yes, MS…
OPEN that OS up for us.
*******BREAKING NEWS***********
Redmond, Washington
MS Press Office
Microsoft’s next OS, code named ‘Corleone’, will be called ‘Extortion – Give us more now’. It will have a ‘Pay Here Now’ feature down in the lower left corner of your screen. All functionality is removed until this feature is repeatably clicked on a daily basis. This is for your protection.
Developing…..
Ubuntu saved me from M$ hell. I used to configure Windows but as of 1.5 years ago it became fighting it. Ubuntu is easy, free and configurable. And you almost never need the command line. When you do you get the instructions from some geek’s website and copy paste! People of the world revolt! You have nothing to lose but endless uninformative dialog boxes!
Great!
I’m writing this on one of my three Linux machines and they all run Ubuntu. This kind of news makes me feel even better about my decision to wipe my machines clean of MS filth and use open-source.
This whole thing brings back unpleasant memories of Senator Joseph McCarthy waving a (folded) piece of paper and shouting “I have here the names of hundreds” of Communists and Communist sympathizers…
We never did get a look at any of the various pieces of paper he waved around so.
I never expected this extortion by MS would be so successful. For every company and distro that is reported talking to (agreeing to pay) MS, there must be dozens more doing it privately. Shameful!
-and MS wonders why some people refuse to pay for their
products..
I hope this squashes any other “talks” that were initiated by the MS’s allegations..
Linspire is a joke, to quote Distrowatch,
“Nevertheless, Linspire’s Kevin Carmony insists that the pact with Microsoft was done purely out of love for humanity, for creating a “better” Linux with Microsoft’s help: “I’d prefer to use diplomacy and cooperation, than go to war. Linspire plans on working with Microsoft, just like we have with dozens of other partners, to build a better Linux. The choice to use, or not to use, the ‘better’ Linux we strive to produce will always be up to you, but I like the idea of finding a mutually advantageous way for Microsoft and Linspire to work together.” Very touching indeed – until you remember that Microsoft has repeatedly labeled Linux and its license as a “virus”, “pac-man” and “cancer”, that Microsoft has been trying to discredit Linux at every opportunity, and that Microsoft has recently hinted at a possibility of future lawsuits against Linux users for patent violations. With partners like that, who needs enemies?
There is a reason why, despite being one of the most user-friendly distributions on the market, Linspire has attracted no more than a trickle of users. Its frequently changing attitudes, a constant barrage of meaningless press releases, failures to deliver promised products, and now the dubious pact with a company whose history of destroying powerful competitors is well documented, makes Linspire a highly suspicious player on the Linux distro scene. It has been around for over five years; yet, its current management still doesn’t get Linux and open source software – instead of engaging the community and exploiting the concept of sharing, Kevin Carmony chooses to fly to Redmond to meet with suits!
Avoid this so-called “better Linux” like plague.”
http://www.distrowatch.com
I loaded a project computer with Ubuntu, worked with it for awhile and came away with the feeling that there were simply too many hoops to jump through before I could do the things I do as a matter of course with my Wintel machine. I don’t “play” with computers, they are tools, and I don’t have the time or the inclination to do things differently simply because I can. The time/cost = productivity ratio simply did not make the cut.