Microsoft signs technology pact with Linspire

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Virtual absence ...

I really don't think that Linspire or any of these other companies are certain to 'go away'. For sure they are 'gone and forgotten' as far as those of us who have pioneered Linux are concerned. But in reality, they are carving out a new niche of 'low end' MS users who like MS, but are looking for a less expensive option than Windows. They are creating a sort of 'not Windows' but 'not quite Linux' niche. There are definitely collisions with the GPL ahead, but these companies will find a way and the lunch they will be nibbling at will be Microsoft's not Linux's. If anything they will only cause the use of non-proprietized Linux to grow, since they will lend it additional credibility, underscore Microsoft's inability to launch a real IP attack against it, and attract additional third party vendors to Linux. MS is now trying disparately to coopt Linux by extending and embracing it because that is one of the few options left. A SCO type attack on even ONE enterprise user would be so damaging to MS as to be not worth the trouble and attacks on non-commercial end users would be even more problematic. So they will most likely just continue to try to navigate the obstacle course and milk what they can out of the deal in the process. It will of course bring legal challenges, but they are used to coping with those. At this point I see this heading for a long term stand off type of relationship similar to industry patent covenants, except that Linux's ace card happens to be the GPL rather than an extensive collection of patents. And the courts are most likely to chart a legal path through this whole mine field with an eye toward avoiding an IP Armageddon. In the future, I see software patents being further limited by the courts if not outrightly eliminated. The tide is flowing in that direction. In the mean time the patent office has set in place a procedure whereby interested third parties can now launch patent challenges in an attempt to weed out junk patents. The future looks good in terms of software IP.

Posted by: George Mitchell   Posted on: 06/14/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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