Technology Director's Desk: Thoughts on the Novell/Microsoft Deal Announced Nov 2

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for this link. ]

"To understand my concern, you have to believe, as I do, that anything that reduces competition reduces choice, and ultimately hurts everyone. Consider the force of Novell's patents in the industry as a whole--their mere existence, alongside Novell's promises to protect the open source community from patent threats has undoubtedly bolstered the confidence of open source developers and vendors, as Novell has, up until now been 'on their side.' Now, Novell and the combined weight of its patents are behind the company to whom the success of open source is the greatest threat. This will undoubtedly influence corporate customers who are interested in and/or using Linux to make sure that their Linux distribution of choice is Suse Linux if, for no other reason than to protect themselves from potential litigation. As Ballmer said, 'let's get you a version of Linux that protects our (Microsoft's) intellectual property...'"

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• InfoWorld: Ballmer's New Weapon Against Linux is... Linux(Nov 03, 2006)
• eWeek: Ballmer Invites Patent Talks with Competing Linux Vendors(Nov 03, 2006)