What is Digg?26 Comments
- Philluminati, on 10/11/2007, -4/+32
Microsoft want it more than anything. They won't get it though. Red Hat won't enter patent cooperation agreement with a company whos patents don't even exist. - BrandonMills, on 10/11/2007, -2/+22MS has approached Red Hat multiple times. Long before they approached SUSE.
Red Hat keeps saying 'no'. Red Hat employees would leaves in flocks if they sold out to MS.
Don't worry about a Red Hat sellout to MS. It's not going to happen. - baalzebub, on 10/11/2007, -2/+19["Tom Robertson, general manager of corporate interoperability and standards at Microsoft."]
the only plausible way for interoperability to work is implementing open file formats and networking protocols, not by signing on to microsoft's protection racket... - jessejoedotcom, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15Exactly:
"Q: Did Red Hat consider a similar patent deal with Microsoft?
A: An innovation tax is unthinkable. Free and open source software provide the necessary environment for true innovation. Innovation without fear or threat. Activities that isolate communities or limit upstream adoption will inevitably stifle innovation.
We believe so strongly in this that we made a critical promise to our customers five years ago:
"To the extent any party exercises a Patent Right with respect to Open Source/Free Software which reads on any claim of any patent held by Red Hat, Red Hat agrees to refrain from enforcing the infringed patent against such party for such exercise ('Our Promise')."
Anything less would not be genuine. 200,000+ customers trust our Promise. 80+% of commercial Linux customers choose us every day. That's leadership--which respects the needs of the community and delivers the promise of open source to our customers."
http://www.redhat.com/promo/believe/ - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+16So far the distros that have signed up for this "intellectual property racketeering" as Mark Shuttleworth ( founder of Ubuntu ) calls it have been B-list distros that could make use of the deal to set themselves apart.
Red Hat is an "A list" distro that doesn't need such deals and probably sees Microsofts threats about patents they haven't even named yet for what it is. - reeder, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12I don't think anyone at Red Hat is that stupid. Everyone knows that a "deal" from Microsoft looks like Bill Gates Buyout of Homer's Web Company: A big *****.
- clickwir, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11I've found it hard to believe that ANY distro has signed an agreement with Microsoft. It's just plain stupid.
- MavRevMatt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10Just say no!
- Waiting2awake, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9STEMP, maybe not before - but now? I'd say yes in terms of perception - but not a chance in terms of product. I don't use Suse(Fedora / Centos / XP myself) but I tried it and it was a great little OS. Green just isn't my colour ;-)
- schotty, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8I agree. I just feel that even if MS discloses the patent violations (I am sure a small handful exist), all RH will do is go "Okay. They will be fixed in an hour. Do you need to be shown the way out?"
Seriously, the mantra at RH is the one the FLOSS community holds dear - show us and it will be fixed. The employees act this way, and the executive staff acts likewise. Besides, which other major linux vendor hasn't sold out? I can't think of any other than Canonical. RH would be stupid to leave Canonical in the postition to say, "We are the only ones who _didn't_ sell out!" - Dankoozy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Why are they so desperate to get these agreements? either they see it is the only way out in the long term or they are trying to destroy it and its hard to know which one it is.
I wonder what would happen if a distro said 'yes we will go along with the compatibility / support thing but we don't want the patents'. does MS want to force the patent thing on them in the hope to break up linux into multiple forks when GPL 3 is released - Lobster, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Microsoft will turn and twist and eventually have to use standards and open source. Customers demand it. Consumers prefer it.
- TheRealDeal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I pray to God that this type of deal does not happen. This would literally put a stranglehold on the software development world. Microsoft getting to call the shots over supposed patent violations that don't or should not exist. It's a frickin' joke.
I am soooooo sick of Microsoft having their hand around the throat of the software industry. Stay strong Red Hat. Don't take the money and run. - Waterrat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5 What i don't understand is why Microsoft is able to get away with "intellectual property racketeering" in the first place.
- OBKenobi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I don't understand why MS is throwing their $$$ away like this. Are they that desperate for the publicity? Nothing is going to come of these deals because MS doesn't have any patents that Linux infringes upon. This is a continuation of the same FUD strategy that SCO tried to pull off.
If MS truly had these so-called "patents", it would have let loose it's horde of lawyers from the start, not play nice. There's no reason for MS to "protect" Linux companies if it has the ability to crush them as it has mercilessly--and often illegally--crushed everyone else in the past.
There is an opportunity here for Red Hat to make Microsoft look very foolish. - Spr0k3t, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4This will never happen. I believe MS will have to publicly document their precious patents before anything happens. At that point, companies will start coming out of the wood works bitchslapping MS with prior proof of concepts further inflating the patent propaganda. Some state judicial system will throw out the hundred+ litigations (a la Boston Legal style) at which point MS will go to the DoJ point, wine, and ask them to do something about it. The DoJ will then abolish patents to a certain extent allowing for logos and standard company artwork. Consumer wins... the end.
- danakin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Hit Ctrl+F5 to refresh and bypass the cache
- Stemp, on 10/11/2007, -5/+8Novell/Suse a B-list distro ?
- soxos, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4It will be a big hit against the community if Red Hat even entertains this. I moved to Debian only because I think the package management is better. I wait and hope that nothing comes of this.
- vil33, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2How come when I got to www.digg.com on firefox, it says site down?
- vil33, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2The server is slow, laggish and comment bugs are appearing.
Thanks for the hint danakin. - UtahApocalyse, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2They are still adjusting the site for the new comment system. Expect some on and off downtimes tonight.
- bjnord, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Finch: We'd like to take you into protective custody.
V: [chuckles] Oh, I'm sure you would. - gabfolio, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Just say YES.................... to interoperability. No to every other part of the deal.
- TheOther1, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3SuSE is huge in Europe and in the 390 market...
- vil33, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1How come when I got to www.digg.com on firefox, it says site down?
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