Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin has a message for Microsoft: he wants the software giant to stop attacking Linux. Zemlin contends that Microsoft is engaged in a covert war against the open source operating system and that the company's hostile behavior is detrimental to the growing number of Microsoft customers who deploy mixed Windows and Linux environments.
Zemlin's comments about Microsoft are a response to a patent auction carried out by Microsoft to sell a number of patents that the company allegedly said were related to Linux. The patents, which were originally obtained by Microsoft from SGI, were sold to Allied Security Trust (AST), a patent-holding group that grants its members perpetual licenses before reselling the patents.
Zemlin suggests that Microsoft's intention was to surreptitiously slip the intellectual property to a patent troll that would then go after Linux companies. This tactic would allow Microsoft to launch an indirect assault against the open source operating system while largely insulating the company from retaliatory patent litigation by The Open Invention Network (OIN), a patent-holding group that uses its intellectual property portfolio to protect Linux. Zemlin says that the plot was thwarted, however, because "Microsoft got caught."
OIN is buying the patents from AST, and Zemlin characterizes this move as a victory for Linux because it will effectively take the patents out of circulation and ensure that they are never obtained by patent trolls.
"By selling patents that target Linux, Microsoft could help generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Linux, without needing to attack the Linux community directly in their own name," Zemlin wrote in a blog entry. "This deal [between OIN and AST] shows the mechanisms the Linux industry has constructed to defend Linux are working, even though the outcome also shows Microsoft to continue to act antagonistically to its customers."
A growing number of companies use a combination of Windows and open source technologies to power their software infrastructure. Microsoft has been engaging with the open source software community and proclaiming its commitment to interoperability as part of a broader strategy to accommodate mixed deployments. Recent examples include Microsoft joining the Apache Foundation and contributing Hyper-V drivers to the Linux kernel.
Despite these positive moves to boost interoperability, the company still exhibits a confrontational posture towards Linux. Microsoft's recent patent infringement lawsuit against Linux-based navigation device maker TomTom over its use of an open source FAT implementation is one such example. Microsoft also spreads egregious disinformation about Linux in its efforts to slow uptake of the open source operating system in regular consumer channels.
Critics are increasingly frustrated with Microsoft's hypocrisy and mixed messages. Microsoft's attacks on Linux are an attack against the company's own customers, Zemlin argues, because so many companies run mixed environments. He calls for such companies to send a message to Microsoft and tell the company that anti-Linux shenanigans are unappreciated.
"The reality is that Windows and Linux will both remain critical parts of the world's computing infrastructure for years to come," he wrote. "Those customers, who have the ear of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, need to tell Microsoft that they do not want Microsoft's patent tricks to interfere with their production infrastructure. It's time for Microsoft to stop secretly attacking Linux while publicly claiming to want interoperability. Let's hope that Microsoft decides going forward to actually try to win in the marketplace, rather than continuing to distract and annoy us with their tricky patent schemes."
This is not the first time that Microsoft has been accused of attacking Linux by proxy. Microsoft helped fund SCO's misguided anti-Linux litigation by purchasing a SCOsource license and may also have played a critical role in helping SCO secure a major investment from BayStar Capital. Microsoft's latest maneuver with the patent auction could refuel suspicions about the company's agenda on Linux and interoperability.
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