Microsoft Expands Anyone But Red Hat Linux Partnerships to Xandros: Includes IP Protection
Duncan Riley
11 comments »
Microsoft has announced a new deal with Linux outfit Xandros that is similar to the Microsoft-Novell tie-up of last year coming complete with Intellectual property assurance.
The “broad collaboration agreement” covers a range of technical, business, marketing and intellectual property commitments. Microsoft said that the commitments will provide customers with enhanced interoperability, more effective systems management solutions and intellectual property assurances “all of which extend a bridge between open source and commercial software and deliver customers real value in mixed systems environments”.
For Xandros and its customers, it’s a get out of jail free card if and when Microsoft starts the open source equivalent to World War 3 by taking legal action against Linux over alleged patent violations.
The deal includes:
Systems management interoperability: “value-added heterogeneous management capabilities” which in English translates to co-operative interoperability development between Xandros and Microsoft.
Server interoperability: Xandros will license a broad set of Microsoft server communications protocols allowing it to interoperate more smoothly with Windows Server
Office document compatibility: Xandros will join Microsoft and other companies in building open source translators fostering interoperability between documents stored in Open XML and Open Document Format.
Microsoft sales and marketing support: Microsoft will now endorse Xandros Server and Desktop as a preferred Linux distribution
Intellectual property assurance: Microsoft will make available patent covenants for Xandros customers that will provide customers with confidence that the Xandros technologies they use and deploy in their environments “are compliant with Microsoft’s intellectual property”.
There was a lot of surprise following Microsoft’s announcement of a deal with Novell last year, and although the Xandros deal follows Novell, there is still bound to be surprise considering many thought the Microsoft-Novell agreement may have been a one off. The extension of intellectual property assurance to another Linux distro will no doubt cause a flurry of discussion in the open source community. My only question: who will be the next Linux deal in Microsoft’s continued efforts to strength the anyone but Red Hat Linux marketplace.
Hi Duncan, Microsoft has already indicated that they won’t be taking legal action.
Xandros is a nice piece of software, I don’t think I’ve used anything that was so easy to install. I am a little surprised, as it seemed like they were shooting directly for the beginning user on PC, it just seemed like if it took off it’d be a decent threat to Windows, more so than the ‘expert’ distributions.
Anyway, for me it just makes Xandros that much more desirable, it’s great for old laptops and stuff.
Matt
if that (Microsoft not suing) is 100% certain then there would be zero reason to include IP in the deal. They might not sue now, but there’s always tomorrow
I think Microsoft is playing the FUD card on this one, and it is working pretty well. It will be interesting to see how IBM and Oracle respond to that (if/when it really works).
What are you up to, MS?
So there’s another distribution to avoid
This is as silly as the SCO issue (which is rapidly dying on its ass) and anyone giving credence to Microsoft’s arguments in this area is just running scared..
That said, there are some plus sides to these deals. The vendors get licenses and assistance from Microsoft in areas of interoperability.. an area Xandros is particularly interested in. It’s just a shame they have to get patent covenants at the same time.. something that totally sours the deal in open source eyes.
And no, it wouldn’t be new for Microsoft to turn around and sue someone after an extended period of time. They’re even doing it to people in their own development community (and an MVP with a respected product at that!). If you dine with the devil, be prepared to be poisoned. Sit at Microsoft’s table at your own risk.
I wonder if the Xandros certificates that MS sells will have expiration dates on them, unlike the novell certificates.
For MS this is a way to keep the FUD rolling… for Xandros it’s a way to get some press since thier project has been completely eclipsed by Ubuntu.
This article was very onesided and assumes facts not in evidence. It ignores the fact that MS has never said what patents are in question nor does it go into the reasons why they will never say what GNU/Linux code is in violation. This article assumes that MS will sue and all of the evidence indicates they will hurt themselves more with a lawsuit. They only have empty threats and places like TechCrunch to help spread the FUD
I’m still curious that when Microsoft decides to sue anyone, who they’re going to sue..
Red Hat? Xandros? Novell? Debian?
None of said companies are supposedly doing anything illegal, distributing OS software that they don’t own makes for a difficult case to battle.. and I really wonder how many of the allegedly 280 or so patents are diminished under the prior-act ruling.. we’ll see.
I am sure / They will integrate / Sue then / hostile take Over -
Although MS is on a roll of good Press; it might try spending that Pr equity by sueing open source / linux
Xandros is a good linux distro; I bought the first version.
But, like MS, you got a buy upgrades all too frequently so they are taking a beating from Ubuntu.
And, wasn’t CORAL forced to sell-off Coral Linux to Xandros when their shares got snapped up by MS? Could be that MS is pretending to be pals for a bit of good publicity!
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