Open letter to Novell: Release the patent numbers!
by Sander MarechalThe technology industry has been in a buzz since last Monday's Fortune article in which Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith claims that the GNU/Linux operating system infringes 235 of Microsoft's patents. If GNU/Linux indeed infringes so many patents then it's very curious that Microsoft refuses to tell the community which 235 patents those are.
Gutierrez refuses to identify specific patents or explain how they're being infringed, lest FOSS advocates start filing challenges to them.
Many journalists and editors concluded from this that Microsoft knows it's 235 patents are bogus. But apparently Microsoft is willing to tell someone what those 235 are. They are telling the companies that they sign cross license deals with. Companies such as yourself, Novell.
Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president of intellectual property and licensing, said that while Microsoft won't discuss specific patents publicly, it has discussed them in private with companies such as Novell Inc. that struck deals with the company to exchange patent royalties for indemnification against litigation.
Source: The Washington Post.
Today you, Novell, claim that GNU/Linux infringes none of the 235 patents that Microsoft is talking about. From your own Novell Open PR blog:
While providing numbers is new, the claims that violations exists are not new. In response to similar Microsoft claims back in November, we put out an open letter from our CEO, Ron Hovsepian, that states our position on this issue. That position hasn’t changed.
From that open letter… “We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgement that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property.”
I call on you, Novell, to tell the community which patents Microsoft thinks are infringed by the GNU/Linux operating system. You know the patent numbers. Microsoft gave them to you. Now release them so we all can publicly prove what you claim: That GNU/Linux infringes no Microsoft patents. If you do, then you may gain back some of the credibility in the community that you lost when you signed the cross-license deal with Microsoft last year.
Sincerely,
Sander Marechal, GNU/Linux user and developer
About the recent website downtime
If you have tried to reach this website in the last four days, you will have noticed that we have had severe technical issues. There was a problem with our webhost and it took very long untill it was resolved. Because our other servers such as Bugzilla and Subversion relied on the nameserver of the webhost, these were unavailable too. It has also affected our e-mail system.
The main website is now back online. It can take some time before DNS caches have flushed and our subdomains are reachable again. If you have tried to send us e-mail in the past four days, please resend then because they have all bounced.
We sincerely apologize for the downtime. Let's hope it never happens again.
WE are Linux! - Tux500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
by Sander MarechalTux500, the community sponsorship drive to put a Linux car in the upcoming Indianapolis 500 is picking up steam. After they recetly opened a webshop with Tux500 gear, created a myspace page and started a radio blog, the team announced yesterday that they broke the $10.000,- threshold. $10.000,- is still a long way off from the goal of $350.000,- but it's enough to put Tux on the nose of the car.
Meanwhile, LXer's NoDough has written an open letter to Dell in the hope that it will bring Tux500 nearer to the $350.000,- goal. Good timing because right at that time a Dell spokesperson showed up at LXer to discuss the recent Dell-Ubuntu announcement and the community responses to it. I hope he picked up on the open letter and send it on to the appropriate persons within Dell.
The latest bit of news is the "WE are Linux!" video created by the Tux500 team — filmed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Here you go:
Ubuntu on Dell - Good for Linux or just for Canonical?
by Sander MarechalAfter a few unsuccessful attempts to censor the news, the big word is finally out: Dell will sell some desktop and laptop models with Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 pre-installed.
Dell hasn't stated yet exactly on which models it will provide pre-installed Ubuntu, but Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has a nice analysis of the different options and most likely models. One thing sticks out from that list: as bigg on the LXer forum has noticed, they all have Nvidia cards and Broadcom 1390 wireless cards.
Will Dell be shipping machines with no hardware 3D and wireless support? That can't be good for Linux! But it's certainly going to be good for Canonical selling paid support...
