[NTLUG:Discuss] M$ to sell Suse

[Rev. wRy]

On Sat, Nov 04, 2006 at 06:42:13PM -0600, Chris Cox wrote:
> As with most of the other spreading misinformation
> and conspiracy theories, Bruce is just plain
> wrong.

Hey, I'm not a lawyer.  Don't claim to be.

> I can't say if the relationship will be good or
> bad... it's just not anything that Bruce said
> in the link above.  Everyone is basically wanting
> to talk about something without doing any kind
> of reading on the subject at all.

My personal take upon reading the press releases is that it will primarily
involve virtualization tech, but I may well be wrong.

The part that scares me?

Under the patent agreement, both companies will make up-front payments in exchange for a release from any potential liability for use of each others patented intellectual property, with a net balancing payment from Microsoft to Novell reflecting the larger applicable volume of Microsoft.s product shipments.  Novell will also make running royalty payments based on a percentage of its revenues from open source products.

And there is no indication of *any* patent infrigement at this point in time by any distribution.

Novell is paying MS.  While they may not go after hobbyists or people
that don't distribute?  They may very well go after people that *do* 
distribute, except Novell.

No matter how you look at it, a M$ tax seems now to be de facto.
 
> In fact, what Bruce argues is actually anti-GPL...
> which is weird... if I can read between the
> lines... (obviously we can all create our own
> conspiracy theories if we try hard enough).

It's not GPL that I'm worried about (nor do I think it's what Bruce is worried about) - it's patents.  This is why HP, IBM et al are cheering.  See section 7.

Particularly:
For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free
redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies
directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could
satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from
distribution of the Program.

What will this mean for Samba and those distributions that include it, given the FAT patent?

RW
(thinks this is worth discussion)