Mandriva: We Won't Sign Microsoft Pact
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Mandriva has become the latest Linux vendor to publicly refute speculation that it will join Novell, Xandros and Linspire in signing a patent covenant with Microsoft, in which the Redmond company agrees not to sue for potential intellectual property infringement.
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Responding to our story yesterday on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's comments, which appeared to many to be another anti-Linux threat, Novell's global public relations director Bruce Lowry told BetaNews this afternoon that his company interprets its cooperation agreement with Microsoft as mutual decision not to press the issue of whose code appears in whose operating system.
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The controversial Service Pack 3 was never distributed to Microsoft Office end users through Automatic Updates, Microsoft told BetaNews. So if you're a Lotus Notes or Corel Quattro user who wants to undo its impact, you can.
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Aircraft maker Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) insisted on Thursday it had no intention of taking sides in a Microsoft (MSFT.
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Microsoft denied it has turned on an anti-piracy measure in Vista that would stop  unlicensed OEM copies of the operating system from running, but did not rule out using it in the future.
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Secondo indiscrezioni in vista cordata anti-Microsoft
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(InfoWorld) - Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos said Thursday his company did not agree that its Linux distribution violates any Microsoft patents nor did the software giant ask Xandros to do so as part of theÂ patent cross-licensing dealÂ the two signed Monday. But he says feedback from the Linux community has been on the order of âyou shouldnât really be talking to the devil.â Typaldos told Network World that at no time did Microsoft reveal to Xandros, which develops Linux desktops, servers, and management tools, any of the 235 patents thatÂ Microsoft says Linux violates. Microsoft has yet to detail publicly specific patents violated by Linux and some critics think the statement is a smoke screen in order to undermine the open source community. âWe did not discuss patents [with Microsoft] and we donât think Linux violates any patents and we were not asked about it,â Typaldos said. âIt is a non-issue for us.â Linux and open-source advocates believe it is a big issue and say the Xandros deal, and another signed by Novell with Microsoft last year, erodes open source licensing provisions especially around intellectual property issues. Indeed, the Free Software Foundation isÂ rewriting its GNU General Public LicenseÂ (GPL) 3.0 to prohibit such patent deals in the future. In terms of the forthcoming GPLv3 and its changes, Typaldos said, âWe do not enter into agreements if we don't believe we can handle them. We plan to honor whatever agreements we have in GPLv2, and will have under GPLv3 or with whomever we are licensing stuff from. When you create agreements you cannot anticipate the future, but you have to be comfortable you can deal with whatever happens one way or another.â He added that since GPLv3 is not yet completed (the final version is due June 29) that he canât really comment on the impact it will have on the Xandros/Microsoft deal. â[Our deal] is a forward looking thing, we are licensing certain technologies,â said Typaldos. He said the technologies will help Xandros integrate its Linux-based server and management software with like software from Microsoft. But he acknowledged that customers have concerns they could be hooked by patent claims and may want some insurance to protect themselves. âLinux says it does not infringe on patents, Microsoft say otherwise. But customers say let me buy some insurance because if there are any flying sparks I donât want to be caught in the middle of that.â Typaldos says that was the genesis of Mondayâs deal with Microsoft that covered interoperability and IP licensing and included âcovenantsâ to protect customers using Xandros software from any potential patent-infringement claims from Microsoft. Microsoft said last month it would seek royalties for patents that it says are being infringed upon by open-source technologies such as Linux. The company, however, said it would prefer to sign patent and cross-licensing deals with open-source distributors rather than seek payments via litigation. On Wednesday, Microsoft inked aÂ patent deal with LG Electronics. It also has signed patent contracts Novell, Samsung and Fuji Xerox among others. NovellâsÂ patent cross-licensing deal with MicrosoftÂ is nearly identical to the one Xandros signed Monday.Just like Typaldos, Novell said its agreement was in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. Novell made that statement in a Nov. 20 open letter to the open source community after being accused of caving into Microsoftâs patent threats. In the same letter, Novell highlighted that the agreement was focused on developing new technologies and standards in server management, virtualization and document file format compatibility. Typaldos says Xandrosâs motivation in dealing with Microsoft was to license technology beyond basic protocols in order to ensure interoperability between the pairâs server software and Xandrosâs BridgeWays management tools and Microsoftâs family of System Center management tools. Xandros also will develop connectors for better interoperability between Microsoftâs Open XML file formats and the Open Document Format. âIn the last six months, we have been delivering BridgeWays and the focus is to tell customers, who really do not want to be boxed into Windows or into one version of Linux, that they have freedom of choice. And to manage all of that stuff, they don't need to learn a different product every time,â said Typaldos. âAs we move up on the food chain in that area, then interoperability is more of a coupling of the lower levels of the products and the need to know how to open up the hood and fit all these things together.â Typaldos says the deal with Microsoft ensures that management tools from the two vendors are a perfect fit. He says that sort of value has to be delivered to customers for Linux to be successful in the market and to quicken the pace of adoption. âYou have to recognize you have a Windows world out there,â he said. âThe customer in the market place is dictating what we are doing, not my engineers, not my private views of Microsoft vs. Linux, it is customers that say I have Windows over here, Sun over there, this over here, and I donât want to worry about Windows or Linux. They want to run their business with single pane of glass management.â
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ISP rejects Microsoft antispam plan amid concerns from open-source community.
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Supporters of the free PC operating system Linux are preparing to counter a recent Microsoft Corp.  deal which established for the first time the principle of paying the software giant to use Linux.
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Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos said Thursday his company did not agree that its Linux distribution violates any Microsoft patents nor did the software giant ask Xandros to do so as part of theÂ patent cross-licensing dealÂ the two signed Monday.
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Microsoft on Thursday flatly denied reports that one of Windows XP Service Pack 2&#39;s most touted features leaves users open to possible attacks.
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Microsoft will not release a planned update to its SharePoint collaboration software this month.
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Editor&#39;s Summary: Microsoft announced that it paid an undisclosed amount to the CCIA trade group so that it won&#39;t challenge the software maker&#39;s US antitrust settlement or participate in a European Union antitrust case.
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Like a kernel tweaking Rambo Mandriva and TurboLinux have mounted a continent-crossing charge on the Linux market. The software makers have formed a development collective dubbed Manbo-Labs dedicated to peace, harmony and a common base for their respective flavors of the Linux operating system.â¦
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I have no problem with Microsoft operating in a market environment. Given a choice, I am sure many of us would gladly pay for Windows and Office rather than use Linux and Open Office.
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Microsoft's top legal advisor in Europe has urged the European Commission not to insist that key security features be stripped from its new Windows Vista operating system, amid an ongoing dispute.
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Microsoft today denied that its enterprise update service has been forcing all Windows XP systems to install a new edition of Windows Desktop.