Although I was in no way threatened by MS’s patent statements, FUD does play well to management. I think Novell’s move was unnecessary in the long run but in the short run, it was a good move. Perhaps Novell understood that your can win a battle against Microsoft but they will eventually win the war if you allow them to cut off your income stream. (i.e. Netscape, DRDos, Stacker)

I see Novell and Xandros adopting GPLv3 in the future (to much fan fare) when their respective install space is large enough risk a lawsuit with MS. Novell still has a trusted name in large, medium and small businesses and that certainly helped me when talking with management. Linux’s sun is rising. They have an established presence in the server room (although not in mine…yet) but I believe they are going to establish themselves on the desktop as well.

I’ve done six interviews with non-technical or business focused publications about my firm’s move to Linux. That tells me that Linux on the desktop is on the radar for many businesses. Not much more has to be said about Vista’s problems but even my pompom carrying MS consultants tell me Vista isn’t ready for prime time. So where does that leave businesses that need new computers NOW and don’t want to buy a 5 year old OS? I don’t believe MS will disappear tomorrow but they are going to have to learn to “play well with others”.

Just my two cents….

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed at all.

It is in plain English, there’s no way around it and it covers the Linux kernel, just about all the libraries and apps as well. What this means is that as soon as Microsoft gets genuine legal traction on ANY patent covering GPLv2 code (i.e. when they produce specific evidence, which any court will demand, just like SCO was told to produce specific evidence) then ALL users and distributers of that GPL code are in trouble. Novell will be in just as much danger as whoever Microsoft comes after and their agreement with Microsoft will offer them not one jot of protection.

The fact that Novell is not bothered by this is clear evidence that they are 100% sure Microsoft will never produce specific evidence of a patent violation and will never sue.

When you think about it, Microsoft have a massive interest in maintaining their slipping monopoly position. If they had a decent case to sue with then they would have fired that gun by now. All they have remaining is the FUD factor.