Microsoft Signs Second Deal With Linux Distro
from the keep-your-friends-close... dept
Novell's partnership with Microsoft hasn't won the company any friends in the open source community, but it has been a boon to the company's Linux business. According to the company, Microsoft has quickly become its biggest Linux partner, as it accounts for the majority of its revenue on that side of the business (the company's only unit that's performing decently). Of course, in addition to the partnership aspect, Novell bought itself protection from any future legal threats from Microsoft, which has once again been making noise about Linux violating its patents. It seems that Novell's initial success in dealing with Microsoft has inspired others, as smaller Linux distro Xandros has announced a similar deal. Once again, the company and its customers will be protected from legal liability, while the two companies will work together on areas of compatibility. For Microsoft, these deals don't come anywhere near to having a significant financial impact. But from a strategic standpoint, it's clear that the company is looking to use position as a way of keeping its enemies close at hand.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Everyone on the M$ Bandwagon!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hmmmm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
*sigh*
Dance with the Devil and all... *waves hand*
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
when first they sue.......
Second; The accused commits the crime.
Since you can easily download any of MS products, I don't them stopping the mass distribution of Lindows type products, and since they have already been accused and gone underground, they would have no reason to keep away from blatantly using MS code. The end user would be the winner, finally a LirectX capable Linux OS
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Microsoft is trying to be relevant,
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Microsoft is trying to be relevant,
Then Microsoft tried doubt, "Linux/LAMP is not well supported, not maintained like Windows, who ya gonna call when things go wrong?"
Microsoft tried uncertainty, fear: Microsoft anounces Linux violates 234 Microsoft patents but don't worry, Microsoft would not sue, no, Microsoft friend.
And yet the Linux community continued to grow and even taunt Microsoft with a "Sue Me First" attitude.
Linux and the Linux environment is the opposite of how Microsoft works: open - closed; public - proprietary; global - centeralized; agile/adaptive - Release Tuesday.
This is another chapter in the Microsoft saga to try and hold onto their slipping dominance in the Information Technology arena. Microsoft is so desperate to turn the tide of Open-Source, GNU, GPL, free as in freedom. So desperate that Microsoft will now try to buy your friendship, I'm just like you, lets just get along.
Next is a closed version of Microsoft Linux.
Its windows with a BASH shell instead of cmd.exe.
Yeah, that's Linux isn't it?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Microsoft is trying to be relevant,
They could have stopped all of this by sticking with Xenix you mean?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mistakes of not breaking up this massive conglerma
MS should have made a in-house version of Linux years ago. What's keeping them from jumping in? They have simply gotten to big and Linux would conflict with their other crap-ass products.
If we had broken up the company like we should have there would probably already be a Microsoft version of Linux. This is because it makes perfect sense for a large part of the company (Like servers, customized OS's, and service based contracts).
Right now MS is a lumbering multi-headed troll that can only see about one foot in front of itself. As long as we stay as far away from the MS toll bridge as we can we are safe... for now
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hmm MS...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Hmm MS...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
SIgh...
Sigh, we'll we ever get beyond comparing which OS is the better?
There are things that work well with each, and there are things that don't work well with each and it all depends on which programmer worked on what and extended which part of each function or block of code and how far they were able to go in the time alloted to them or before they got bored and did something else.
Can't we all just get along.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: SIgh...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]