Microsoft, Novell Tag-Team Against Chinese Distros
,----[ Quote ]
| Currently, the major Linux players in the China market are home-grown Red
| Flag; Hong Kong-based Sun Wah Linux; Japanese player TurboLinux; and Red Hat.
|
| Of the other players, only TurboLinux has joined Microsoft's Interop Vendor
| Alliance, which seeks to help vendors insure interoperability between their
| applications and Microsoft's; the rest remain independent.
|
| [...]
|
| Back in 2005, Sun Wah Linux announced the sale of nearly 142,000 Linux PCs in
| what it said was the largest Linux desktop rollout in China to date, to the
| Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education. Sun Wah also provided
| maintenance, tech support and Linux training to schools and universities
| supplied with its operating system.
`----
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/62676.html
Novell expands Microsoft alliance with China deal
,----[ Quote ]
| Because Linux software is available free of charge, many Chinese businesses
| use it without paying. These companies miss out on the service, support, and
| upgrades that companies like Novell can provide. By encouraging Chinese firms
| to pay for Linux, Microsoft is helping Novell tap a valuable revenue stream.
`----
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/04/21/novell_expands_microsoft_alliance_with_china_deal/
It should say "Microsoft tap a valuable revenue stream." Microsoft gets paid
here. And now there's this big discussion:
Off-Topic: Mapping Microsoft Windows Server Protocols to Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The motivation for this blog entry is that given that so much has been
| written about Microsoft and patents vis a vis Linux and vis a vis the
| European Commission decision, I found it interesting that it seems no one in
| the industry has actually rolled up their sleeves and analyzed and published
| how many patents Microsoft actually holds within their Windows server
| protocols and what functional areas these patents cover. I think this is key
| information to know in order to help address Gartner Group's advice to open
| source developers to "not use Microsoft's [protocol] documentation unless you
| have rigorous processes to keep track of applicable patents." Having this
| supplementary information could also benefit commercial software developers
| by helping them better understand what Microsoft has to offer protocol-wise
| and what they potentially may need (or may not need) to license from
| Microsoft.
`----
http://www.centrify.com/blogs/tomkemp/mapping_patents_to_microsoft_protocols.asp
Centrify’s Tom Kemp: Here’s the map to avoiding Microsoft’s patent minefield
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8562
Doing the Microsoft patent math
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1354
Recent:
Novell congratulates itself for snogging Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Novell wants you to know that selling its soul to Steve Ballmer was a really
| good idea.
|
| On the last day of 2007, two separate Novell execs tossed up blog posts
| congratulating themselves for agreeing to that "interoperability partnership"
| with Microsoft, a year-old deal intent on forcing an unholy relationship
| between Linux and Windows.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/03/linux_pats_self_on_back/
Is it Microsoft + Novell or Microsoft vs. Novell?
,----[ Quote ]
| Actually, this is very surprising. I've started to notice a trend in all the
| announcements the two companies have made over the past year: Novell stresses
| interoperability while Microsoft beats its drum on patent protection.
|
| [...]
|
| I wonder how long Microsoft will continue its efforts to try to cast the deal
| as about IP. It's not for Novell, it seems to me now. Microsoft did the deal
| to hurt Linux - there's no other explanation for it. It has no fiduciary duty
| to enable a competitor (unless its a weaker competitor against the Linux
| market leader, Red Hat). It has a fiduciary duty to kill that competitor.
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9813681-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Related:
Novell uses Microsoft FUD to market itself
,----[ Quote ]
| That these claims also could be taken to mean that Novell is developing a
| non-standard Linux, one that is skewed only towards working with Windows,
| appears to have escaped Novell.
|
| In other words, Novell has an "in" with Microsoft which Red Hat does not;
| Utah and Redmond are in bed together and Red Hat is an intruder.
`----
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/14695/1091/
|
|
