"Wednesday night’s Microsoft (MSFT) press release about open source software [OSS] began with one of the most loaded sentences in OSS history: “Today Microsoft Corp. and Linux desktop provider Linspire Inc. announced a broad interoperability, technical collaboration (sic) that also includes intellectual property [IP] assurances.”"
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mattflaschen
16 years 43 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago
This is article is useless. It
This is article is useless. It totally ignores the GPLv3 prohibition on conveying by companies that have signed exclusive patent deals (which is highly relevant for these distributors). Moreover, it considers ESR as the leading representative of Open Source even though he is increasingly alienated. If you don't believe me, look at http://opensource.org/node/152, in which Michale Tiemann (president of the Open Source Initiative) says, "As I read the "final" draft version of GPLv3, which I think is truly excellent..." That alone proves it isn't only the FSF that supports "rabid OSS" (i.e. software freedom by any other name).
It ridiculously speculates that, "Microsoft is already end gaming its lead product and textbook cash cow." because Linspire also distributes a desktop operating system, instead of grasping the more likely possibility that Microsoft would do anything to destroy desktop competitors.
Most importantly, I think everything but the patent provision in these deals (in the author's words, "Linux-patent thing that caused the Novell fuss") is just cover, so the Linspire deal isn't significantly different from Xandros', or even Novell's (except for MS distributing coupons). Linspire is also just as much a "business venture" (not commmunity) as Xandros.