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MS and Red Hat team up on patent-free interoperability

news.cnet.com — For years Microsoft has insisted that open-source vendors acknowledge its patent portfolio has a precursor to interoperability discussions. Today, Microsoft shed that charade and announced an interoperability alliance with Red Hat for virtualization.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 16, 2009

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  • schestowitz, on 02/16/2009, -4/+40This shows that Microsoft is scared of being left out.. even out of the VM. Can you blame them?

    “Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux...” --Steve Ballmer (September 2008)
  • jcannonb, on 02/16/2009, -1/+22You clearly didn't read the above comment. Steve Ballmer even says that Linux controls 60% of the server market. If Microsoft loses its hold on more of corporate life, then desktops in the business will slowly switch to non MS products, and if that happens, what do you think people will choose at home? People will choose what they need to do be the most productive for work at home. That's how MS gained its strong hold to start with. They got into business, pushed Novell out, and now the same thing is happening to them.
  • jmt612, on 02/16/2009, -2/+21
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  • trollick, on 02/16/2009, -2/+20These comments suck. Where is ASCII art of Admiral Akbar warning about possible entrapment?
  • badqat, on 02/16/2009, -2/+17Yeah...how many Mac servers are out there? Think it's even 1% of the market? .1% of the market?
  • CATSCEO2, on 02/16/2009, -1/+15He's above you!
  • mjasay, on 02/16/2009, -2/+15Normally I'd share your caution, but I've been talking interop/patents with Red Hat for years and specifically last week related to this deal. They stuck to their principles here.
  • 4DFX, on 02/16/2009, -3/+15I have trouble believing anything that comes out of Microsoft. Can you blame me?
  • jostheller, on 02/16/2009, -3/+15its a trap!
  • badqat, on 02/16/2009, -1/+11Uh, ESXi is absolutely, 100% free...and you still must buy Windows Server and deal with it's shortcomings too.

    If someone offers a piece of crap completely free - it's still going to be a piece of crap.
  • MacEnvy, on 02/17/2009, -0/+10jcannon is right, MS has good reason to be afraid of companies like Red Hat. My own company is strongly pushing Linux expertise, as well as Red Hat certifications, to support the growing number of Linux servers we support. We contract for a large government agency who is increasing their Linux server percentage, and from what I hear other government agencies are doing the same. The US Navy is also significantly increasing their base of Linux machines I'm told.

    As IT goes, so goes the market. And we're decreasing our dependence on Windows Server where I am.
  • solarwind24, on 02/17/2009, -1/+10Linux has more servers than 60%...
  • lemur, on 02/17/2009, -0/+8"Windows controls 90% of all world computers."

    You really have to be careful when you say things like this. Just because the computer has dominated the world of the consumer, it doesn't mean that the consumer now dominates the world of the computer. Far from it, in fact, that the average consumer (including tech enthusiasts) are completely oblivious to the majority of what really goes on in the world of computing--computing that falls outside their scope of knowledge or interest.

    Simply put, Windows runs 90% of the world's desktop and laptop computers, but even those computers are a small subset of computers that consumers actually use (I only have one desktop and one laptop, but I have 10+ other computers including all my calculators, mobile phones, game consoles, and other misc. electronics). Of all the computers we own, the ones that we actually refer to as "computers" represent 10% or less of the actual computers we own, and that is only in the realm of consumer electronics. When you include all computers in the world outside of the consumer domain or even the electronic domain, Windows is just a drop of water in the sea, and it will never be anything more than that.

    Any computer scientist can tell you that computer science goes way back--long before there was any such concept of Windows or Microsoft, and computer science has seen many an operating system live and die the way Windows has. Before Microsoft became so big, nobody believed any company beside IBM would control the world's computers... goes to show how near-sighted people are.

    Anyway if you'd just open your eyes and study computers a little bit, you'd find a world of computers that don't run any Microsoft product.
  • schestowitz, on 02/16/2009, -3/+11Cryoniq,

    No, this one is very different. RTM.
  • Flagg3, on 02/17/2009, -0/+8Umm, the corporate world is not like the consumer world. None of the Servers we buy at American Express 'Come with Windows Server' preinstalled, we must pay for a license for every server we install it on.

    What planet are you on?

  • badqat, on 02/16/2009, -2/+10Only thing is - you'd have to be a dufus to pass on VM Ware and take the Microsoft competitor. Take a look at the install differences, the speed differences, and the overall hardware requirements - and VM's ESX wins any day of the week.
  • inactive, on 02/16/2009, -2/+9FTA: "Red Hat has long argued that patent discussions only cloud true interoperability, which is best managed through open source and open standards."

    Jesus, you people are unbelievable.
  • schestowitz, on 02/16/2009, -4/+10No, I actually agree. I even included a video of Ballmer threatening Red Hat and its customers right here:
    http://boycottnovell.com/2009/02/16/was-rht-ms-col ...
    That was the end of 2007. But.. you know what they say... the New Microsoff(R). Remember the OOXML corruptions?
  • harlowsmonkeys, on 02/16/2009, -4/+10Open standards does not ensure interoperability. Stop mindlessly parroting what you read on BN and look around the open source world if you need examples.
  • Elranzer, on 02/17/2009, -0/+6Which Linux distro do you think is the dominant server OS?
  • inactive, on 02/16/2009, -3/+9Have you guys heard the news...Microsoft is planning to open retail stores...funny isn't it?
  • inactive, on 02/17/2009, -1/+62015.....

    Red Hat has been closed down because of a long running battle with Microsoft over patents....

    Microsoft stated "We did not steal any technology and patent it"....
  • diablozx9, on 02/17/2009, -6/+10I will stick with ubuntu.
  • ivanmarsh, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4Microsoft needs to work on getting Windows to play well with the Xen kernel.
  • ohreilly, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4Dugg down for "there all about profit".

    Grammar time, innit.
  • arbulus, on 02/17/2009, -1/+5It's because of Red Hat that Linux is the dominant server OS. Red Hat is also one of the largest contributors to major open source projects like the Linux kernel, X.org, GNOME, etc.
  • theaceoffire, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4Also, if you have an older machine, I found a tiny OS called deli linux...

    http://www.delilinux.org/

    It provides a GUI on a i486 with 16 MB RAM! It is not user friendly to set up though.
  • maz2331, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4SCO to hell!
  • coldkill3r, on 02/17/2009, -1/+5Can't go wrong with either of them.
  • inactive, on 02/17/2009, -0/+3I certainly hope you're right. MS's legendary douchebaggery is the stuff of legend. If anyone can ***** it all up for the open source community, they can.
  • InorganicMatter, on 02/16/2009, -2/+5Except the Microsoft one is free, and the VMware one costs many thousands of dollars.
  • Paranormalized, on 02/17/2009, -0/+3Do you have any specific objections to this deal, or are you just spreading FUD?
  • inactive, on 02/17/2009, -1/+4I'll stick with Linux Mint.
  • theaceoffire, on 02/17/2009, -0/+3Don't look!

    He is aiming to deceive!
  • XeroXenith, on 02/18/2009, -0/+2And no, RH and Novell are not all about profit. Though, as corporations, they do need to break even to stay in business, they make a huge amount of contributions upstream between them, which helps every aspect of GNU/Linux.

    Microsoft, on the other hand... yeah, they're all about profit. Windows 7 is coming out nice though.
  • inactive, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2I seriously thought this was an Onion article when I saw the headline.
  • DrLeePhD, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2well we're all doomed anyways in 2012, right?
  • jakswa, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1dugg! noobuntu for the epic win! invite your friends!
  • geekworking, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2keep your friends close and your enemies closer
  • jakswa, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1Excuse my ignorance, but RTM = ? (I know RTA and RTFA... and assume it means something similar?)
  • Cryoniq, on 02/16/2009, -1/+2Hmm maybe.. lets for all sakes hope there aren't any miffy around this in the end..
  • HamNCheese, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2@InorganicMatter

    Actually quite a few businesses run on ESX and ESXi. The limitation of Hyper-V is, frankly, Microsoft.

    Oh, and VirtualBox is not "hosted".

    http://www.virtualbox.org/

    For density, nothing beats ESX 3. Go read some benchmarks.


  • sanskrtam, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2Microsoft quasi-killed Xandros and Novell. Next stop: Red Hat.
  • MrViklund, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1I think it's great by Microsoft to share it's patent portfolio in this way. I would like to see more of this.
  • jman82s, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1The "patent-free" part makes it sound like it could be a good thing.

    However, I'd still feel like a dog taking a treat from a stranger.
  • Biznarie, on 02/17/2009, -1/+2Yeah, but only 60% market share.
  • eseven73, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1I was going to say the same thing! As much as I like Ubuntu, I'm afraid Ubuntu is next... given how popular Ubuntu is I'm sure M$ would just love to figure out a way to bring Ubuntu to it's knees.
  • absolut1983, on 02/17/2009, -2/+2Shame on them.

    RH laughed at Novell when they opened their legs to MS.
  • inactive, on 02/16/2009, -5/+4Dont trust them its only a way to on the inside track so they can fight Linux more efficiently.
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