01.30.08
Quick Mention: Renault Pays for Novell’s Linux ‘Protection’
As you have probably heard by now, the French police is moving to GNU/Linux. The good news is that it did not choose SUSE, unlike others in France. But there is another announcement out there and it speaks about Renault buying Novell/Microsoft’s Linux coupons. Is it for patent ‘protection’ or so-called ‘interoperability’? Maybe both? The press release tries to conceal the former bit. As we have shown before, there is no interoperability barrier or advantage, but it’s a nice guise for selling patent ‘protection’. Here is part of the press release:
“Working with Microsoft to jointly build and support solutions to improve interoperability and deliver powerful new virtualization capabilities is paying great dividends for our customers,” said Susan Heystee, vice president and general manager of global strategic alliances for Novell.
Susan Heystee has at least learned not to brag about “intellectual property”, but this does not change the nature of this deal.
All in all, it seems as though Novell has realised that mentioning the ‘wonderful’ patent royalties part of the deal isn’t good for business. Nevertheless, with all these deals comes the usual extortion that’s associated with mythical software patents, which are not even valid in France. Novell pays Microsoft money for the ‘permission’ to sell Linux, based on sales volume. This happens even in countries where software patents do not apply. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.