"Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian says it is in his interest to give customers GPLv3 code when they are seeking updates, even if the customer was paying for Novell support through Microsoft certificates."

Novell's chief executive has justified his company's contentious Microsoft hook-up to open source devotees by claiming the deal is critical to the long-term success of their favorite operating system.

Microsoft has succeeded in fracturing the Linux and open-source community with the patent indemnity agreements it has entered into with several prominent vendors, Ubuntu leader and Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told eWEEK.

Red Herring may have proclaimed Microsoft the reigning king over GNU/Linux. But the claim is hyped - and temporary.

A U.S. judge reversed on Monday a jury's ruling that Microsoft Corp. had infringed patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and threw out a record $1.5 billion verdict against the world's largest software maker.

Microsoft should be able to extricate itself from the implications of the new GPL 3, according to a leading Australian intellectual property lawyer.

Microsoft Corp. has dramatically cut the price of Windows Vista in China in a bid to boost sales of its new operating system.

"The other day I advocated giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt with regards to its attutude to open source, with the proviso that even with that benefit the company’s actions would still sometimes inevitably be seen in a bad light."