Will Red Hat Lose Customers Over Patent Protection?

Vikingod · Dec 5, 2006, 02:12 PM

Source: eWEEK
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Like him or hate him, one thing about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is that he speaks his mind and seldom shies away from controversy.

So I was not surprised when he weighed in about Linux vendor Red Hat and its refusal to enter into a patent cooperation agreement like the one Microsoft recently struck with Novell.

While Ballmer told me during an interview in New York last week following the business availability launch of Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007, that Microsoft was continuing to talk to Red Hat about such an agreement, he also made clear that he thinks Red Hat runs the risk of seeing some of its customers migrate off its version of Linux and onto SUSE Linux if it continues to hold out against doing such a deal.

Dec 5, 2006, 02:12 PM	#1
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	Will Red Hat Lose Customers Over Patent Protection? Source: eWEEK ___________ Like him or hate him, one thing about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is that he speaks his mind and seldom shies away from controversy. So I was not surprised when he weighed in about Linux vendor Red Hat and its refusal to enter into a patent cooperation agreement like the one Microsoft recently struck with Novell. While Ballmer told me during an interview in New York last week following the business availability launch of Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007, that Microsoft was continuing to talk to Red Hat about such an agreement, he also made clear that he thinks Red Hat runs the risk of seeing some of its customers migrate off its version of Linux and onto SUSE Linux if it continues to hold out against doing such a deal.