Novell, Microsoft, patents and the EFF

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 24 May 2007 19:12

Opinion and Analysis

For example, a patent by ClearChannel on the recording of live concerts was overturned by the EFF’s efforts. Another patent by Amazon for their ‘one-click’ buying system is being challenged as are many others.

Still, how much cred Novell’s support of the EFF is restored within the OSS community will be anyone’s guess, but it certainly can’t hurt.

What all these separate but intertwined events are making clear is the craziness of software patents. With software, anything can be emulated – even other software. It’s a bit like patents on genes – parts of every living person or every tomato have been patented.

There are patents on inventions – but patents on software is something that will come to a head over the next few years as software innovation is stifled at every turn by the need to pay a patent tax for coming up with a new or better way of doing something.

And if there are no software patents to worry about, Microsoft’s patent threats won’t hold any water, if they do at the moment anyway, given that plenty of companies out there hold patents that they might want to ask Microsoft to pay for, should someone actually start detailing specific patent violations instead of making vague threats about them.

As for Novell, Microsoft and Dell working together on getting more Linux out there that works with Microsoft’s products, it all seems to sound reasonable enough, even though we know plenty of people out there think otherwise.

It has to be remembered that some major companies out there are using more Linux that ever before since the Novell and Microsoft deal simply because they know their Suse Linux and Windows systems are effectively guaranteed to work together – and they made the decision to buy Linux instead of more Windows, even if it was Microsoft selling it to them!

Some will say Microsoft pressure made them do it, but I think the companies concerned were big enough to make their own decisions.

Whichever way you look at it, Linux has never been more important, nor has it ever garnered more of Microsoft’s attention, with Microsoft in the odd position of being responsible for over US $70m worth of Linux sales for Novell.

That would never have been the case five years ago. But today, it’s fact. Where that leaves Linux and Novell in the end is up for hot debate, but you could go so far as to say that, at least for the time being, it has made Novell’s star shine more brightly than ever before, although whether it’s just a twinkle or a super nova is a story that’s yet to unfold and be told.