Novell, Xandros and Linspire have signed well publicized agreements with Microsoft.
Rumors on the Web have hinted that we might be next on the list. So we would like to clarify our position.
At Mandriva, we believe working in heterogeneous environments is essential to our customers. So, interoperability between the Windows and Linux world is important and must be dealt with, and anything that helps this interoperability is a good thing.
We also believe the best way to deal with interoperability is open standards, such as ODF which we support strongly and we are ready to cooperate with everyone on these topics.
As far as IP is concerned, we are, to say the least, not great fans of software patents and of the current patent system, which we consider as counter productive for the industry as a whole.
We also believe what we see, and up to now, there has been absolutely no hard evidence from any of the FUD propagators that Linux and open source applications are in breach of any patents. So we think that, as in any democracy, people are innocent unless proven guilty and we can continue working in good faith.
So we don’t believe it is necessary for us to get protection from Microsoft to do our job or to pay protection money to anyone.
We plan to keep developing and distributing innovative and exciting products and making them available to the largest number in the true spirit of open source.
François Bancilhon
[...] François Bancilhon le signale sur le billet de blog du même titre que celui-ci, Mandriva ne ralliera pas Microsoft comme l’ont fait Novell, [...]
Stick to your guns that is great. But I do hope you have some kind of protection set up for your customers because you will need it. Of course seeing as how you came off of bankruptcy I doubt protections are in place for anyone. Seeing as how you do not wish to honor other companies IP makes me doubt Mandriva or your developers really care about it and your distribution would be the last one I would consider, if even bother considering for any kind of enterprise deployment. Thanks but I think I will stay with SUSE for enterprise deployments and even for my home machines.
To Roberto J.:
They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
SubSonica, you are absolutely correct.
The problem is that you have an army of scared MCSE’s and (very likely) more than one MS employee that feel that knee-jerk response to counter anything “Linux.” They are scared to death. I see it every day.
Over the years, I’ve asked several MCSE’s why they’re so overtly hostile to Linux. After I got past their “Linux sux0rz” bluster, it boiled down to one thing: their job security. They were actually afraid of losing their jobs if Linux came to their companies. When I suggested that maybe they should then consider learning Linux, they–at last–admitted to me that they didn’t think they were smart enough. And that’s why they were scared. They feel helpless against not just Linux, but Linux/UNIX admins. People who feel helpless (like these scared MCSE’s) will stop at nothing to try to discredit or discourage you. They feel they have too much (their livelihoods!) to lose.
And remember one other thing. In the United States, at least, there is no such concept as “intellectual property.” So, when American companies like Microsoft and their lapdogs (e. g. SCO, Apple) talk about their “intellectual property” getting somehow “violated,” they are talking out of their behinds, and it smells like it. If you even so much as try actually suing for “intellectual property” violations in my country, the judge will take pleasure throwing you out of court. You have to actually *state* the *actual* violation.
So, as the Brits would say, Microsoft is talking bollocks. And the scared MCSE’s need to wake up.
–SYG
Well done Mandriva.
[...] and must be dealt with, and anything that helps this interoperability is a good thing,” http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/06/19/we-will-not-go-to-canossa. “We also believe what we see, and up to now, there has been absolutely no hard evidence from [...]
Great to know madriva will stay seperate from microsoft. Lets just hope microsoft won’t be assembling a hacking team to steal from linux next like they did with mac os.
[...] and must be dealt with, and anything that helps this interoperability is a good thing,” http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/06/19/we-will-not-go-to-canossa. “We also believe what we see, and up to now, there has been absolutely no hard evidence from [...]