Novell Press Release
http://www.novell.com/news/press/item.jsp?id=1196
- "Under this new model, customers will realize unprecedented choice and flexibility through improved interoperability and manageability between Windows® and Linux."
- "Agreement Has Broad Scope" - Virtualization, Web services for managing physical and virtual servers, Document format compatibility
- "As part of this agreement, Microsoft will provide a covenant not to assert its patent rights against customers who have purchased SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or other covered products from Novell, and Novell will provide an identical covenant to customers who have a licensed version of Windows or other covered products from Microsoft."
- "Both companies had to think creatively about how to create an intellectual property bridge between the two worlds of open source and proprietary software," said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel of Microsoft. This bridge is built on respect for the innovations of each company and the open source community, and a passion for what we can deliver for our customers together.
- "Novell officials noted that one of their priorities in working toward the agreement with Microsoft was making sure the agreement made sense for the open source community."
- "Microsoft will work with Novell and actively contribute to several open source software projects, including projects focused on Office file formats"
- "Microsoft will not assert its patents against individual noncommercial open source developers"
- "Microsoft is promising not to assert its patents against individual contributors to OpenSUSE.org whose code is included in the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform"
Microsoft Press Release
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-02MSNovellPR.mspx
- "The two companies also announced an agreement to provide each other’s customers with patent coverage for their respective products"
- Under this new model, customers will realize unprecedented choice and flexibility through improved interoperability and manageability between Windows® and Linux (no (r)!)
- "They said it couldn’t be done." - Steve Ballmer
- "Microsoft will officially recommend SUSE Linux Enterprise for customers who want Windows and Linux solutions."
- "Microsoft will distribute coupons for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server maintenance and support, so that customers can benefit from the use of an interoperable version of Linux with patent coverage as well as the collaborative work between the two companies."
- "The patent cooperation agreement enables Microsoft and Novell to give customers assurance of protection against patent infringement claims. It gives customers confidence that the technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with the two companies’ patents."
- "Microsoft will provide a covenant not to assert its patent rights against customers who have purchased SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or other covered products from Novell, and Novell will provide an identical covenant to customers who have a licensed version of Windows or other covered products from Microsoft"
- Kevin Kettler, CTO at Dell Inc - "As an industry leader in the IT market, we are excited to see the technology investments being made around virtualization and interoperability by both companies with this agreement." - Don't Dell have a lot to lose with the push for virtualisation?
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/default.mspx
A Patent Cooperation Agreement where Microsoft and Novell provide patent coverage for their respective customers, giving customers peace of mind regarding intellectual property issues. - buying peace of mind? - only need to buy it because MS destroyed it in the first place - meditation?
"Under the patent agreement, customers will receive coverage for Mono, Samba, and OpenOffice as well as .NET and Windows Server."
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/open_letter_patents.mspx
- "We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent issue, even while we respectfully take a different view."
- "Microsoft and Novell have agreed to disagree on whether certain open source offerings infringe Microsoft patents and whether certain Microsoft offerings infringe Novell patents. The agreement between our two companies puts in place a workable solution for customers for these issues, without requiring an agreement between our two companies on infringement."
Groklaw
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061203015212989
- Novell agrees to violate the clear intent and spirit of the GPL in an attempt to comply literally with the words but not with the actual known purpose of the license to make money off of code Novell didn't write and doesn't own. So instead of trying to prove the GPL isn't binding, they just kick it to the curb and step over it and dare the community to do something about it?
puts a FUD legal cloud over Linux (this time a patent cloud) or in any case an "IP" cloud, as per Steve Ballmer's vague wording -- and was Darl McBride's less vague?;
- makes Novell's Linux cost more, because it has agreed to pay Microsoft royalties, whereas SCO asked for money for its license;
Script 1
(panel completely filled, about 25% brown on bottom and 75% grey cloud on top; within the grey cloud, the viewer can faintly make out the shape of a beard on one figure and eyebrows and an air of smugness on the other) rms: wtf is going on in here? linus: I received a beta copy of the next version of Novell Suse Linux. Great isn't it! rms: well, no. I appear to be wading through three feet of fecal matter linus: that's not fecal matter. it's unprecedented choice and flexibility. rms: and I seem to be treading on shards of broken glass linus: you've got it all wrong! that's peace of mind against intellectual property infringement rms: and this poisonous opaque smog filling the room? linus: ah, now that's a FUD cloud. It's fine if you don't breathe it in or get it on your skin.