Shuttleworth Says No Patent Deals With Microsoft

christian.einfeldt writes "The FOSS press has speculated for some time now that Mark Shuttleworth would probably not agree to any patent 'protection' deals with Microsoft, but blogger Steven Rosenberg has found a page on Shuttleworth's personal blog ('Here Be Dragons') that unambiguously sets out Shuttleworth's opposition to Canonical's participation in any such deal. Rosenberg summarizes Shuttleworth's position in these terms: 'So there you have it — Canonical welcomes any efforts by Microsoft to improve "interoperability," isn't a fan of OpenXML, doesn't want to infringe on anybody's patents or trademarks, thinks Microsoft's threats are ill-advised, and would like to actually deal with the issue rather than respond out of fear.'

Stuff that matters?

[aysa]

So now we have a site for nerds, that quotes an unknown blogger quoting Shuttleworth.

Great, I will link to the slashdot article in my blog. Maybe I get slashdotted and we get a dupe.

Cant't we go straight to the source?

Re:Everyone kinda knew.

[rudlavibizon]

Also I get the impression that he's not in for making quick cash out of linux. It looks like he has long term plans, not just with linux as a platform, but with free software as a development/business model.

Who?

[ebcdic]

You might at least say who this guy is. We aren't all experts on the personnel of every Linux distribution.

Ramifications

[fishthegeek]

I've often wondered if Shuttleworth would turn out to be some sort of 21st century Dr. Faustus and sign a deal with the devil. He is a business man after all and Canonical is a business. It's pleasing to hear that he will not be directly working with Microsoft, but one has to wonder whether or not Ubuntu's collaboration with Dell and Linspire (both of whom have signed on with MS) mean to Canonical. Is he saying this now because in some indirect way Ubuntu becomes indemnified by default? I'm not saying one way or the other, and I certainly am not questioning His commitment to FOSS but it is curious to watch this happen. What one of us here wouldn't give our little used left testicle to just be a fly on the wall of those patent extor... errr.. licensing meetings between MS and insert your own company here.

Looking forward to the consolidation.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

This is great. Hopefully the Linux community will now consolidate around Canonical and Red Hat -- already, two leaders who have done well by listening to what people want and simply delivering quality free software without any strings attached -- now, the two who are sane enough to avoid getting in bed with Microsoft.

As the also-rans sign their lives away to the Beast of Redmond, their users will disappear. They will become irrelevant, because nobody wants to run Microsoft Linux. And the fragmentation of Linux will gradually go away as everyone consolidates around Ubuntu and Red Hat (and Red Hat respins such as CentOS).

I'm looking forward to it.

Re:Who?

[ebcdic]

We may be geeks, but we're not all Linux-distribution geeks.

Re:Who?

[pherthyl]

If your readers have to look up the subject of the article, you've got it wrong.

Because news should only ever be about things everyone already knows! Heaven forbid that you might learn something new.

Re:Ramifications

[monkeyboythom]

From what i have gathered by reading columns through the Internet (Internet!=true) is that Mr. Shuttleworth is okay with where he stands in life. He built a business that in turn was bought by Verisign which made him a lot of money. Using some of that money, he created Canonical as a framework for housing the Ubuntu development team.

So does he need to cross license with Microsoft? No. Why bother? He doesn't need the money, his company is small in terms of staff and he set forth a goal which is not to compete directly with Microsoft but a more altruistic level by addressing the computing needs of people in general. Hence the African word, Ubuntu, which means 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are.'

With the latest level, 7.04, Canonical has made great strides in what I call the 'YMAD' (Your Mom and Dad's) environment. Using the Live CD, you can run the Ubuntu OS from the CD upon booting. Except for some encrypted wireless schemes, this OS basically runs well for the YMADs without us geeks stepping in to play help desk. But again, there are issues so it is not perfect. Installing the OS from the CD needs work as well.

Shuttleworth has taken the high road in his blog to state that he is pursuing an free (as in beer) Ubuntu or nothing configuration, meaning all apps, runtimes, and codecs are free according to GPL. And he is right to do so. By maintaining a clear Ubuntu track, this OS does not get bogged down in maintaining cross licensing or product dependencies. However there is one big dependency - Debian.

Debian must not sell out to Microsoft or Ubuntu will have a very rough road ahead. And for Debian not go with Microsoft will take the whole community to back it.

The ramifications? Microsoft is picking up the Linux stragglers from the herd. While in of itself is basically harmless to the Linux community, an aggregate of Linux distros may in effect encircle the community and slow it down due to the time it takes to fork and go on separately. Microsoft has the dollars and sheer momentum to go down this path. Ultimately, it will come down to [pure] Linux having just a few main branches to compete with Microsoft.

Here it goes...

[wellingj]

Eben Moglen has stated that there is a Waterloo [cnn.com] to be fought some where in this current attack from Microsoft. I think this situation is more analogous to the American Revolutionary War because this is more about freedom. I believe Mark Shuttleworth has accomplished the equivalent of the Boston Tea party with his statements. In effect he's saying that he won't pay the Microsoft tax on his freedom, regardless of how insignificant or silly the medium of that tax. We all (should?) know what happened 2 years after the Tea Party :

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard 'round the world.

So who will it be?

Digging the trenches

[boolithium]

Linux and free software as a whole represent a new business model. It's good to see one of the big players standing with the community. Most people say microsoft is just bluffing, but I'm not one of them. The reality is that open source software is pressuring the entire industry to change the way they do business. Microsoft will not change, and will not hesitate to remove any threat. I think this still comes back to novell saving their company with the community's product, but not being willing to hold their ground with us. So here we are just like in pre 2000, except that we have more than redhat to add legitemacy, we have ubuntu.

Cool things

[sybesis]

Thats a cool thing. I was hoping that it would happen because Ubuntu is so cool and don't actually need anything from microsoft to become better. Interoportability is just a lie in my opinion... Why would microsoft want to make windows more portable for linux while it isn't interoportable on previous version of windows... dx10 and dx9 games. Why would someone want to make windows work with linux when he can make linux work with linux?