Will Red Hat Lose Customers over Patent Protection?
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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.
None of the enterprises I have talked to that are running Windows and Red Hat Linux intend to take the time, effort and cost to switch simply to get some form of Microsoft patent protection.
But the fact that a lot more Windows customers also running Linux are using Red Hat's distribution has created an interesting situation, where those using SUSE have patent infringment protection, while those on Red Hat don't.
When I asked Ballmer about that, he reiterated that Microsoft was still talking to Red Hat about this, but implied that it was up to Red Hat customers to exert pressure on that company to do something.
If that failed, the other option would be for them to dump Red Hat and move to SUSE, he said.
I'm not convinced that is going to happen in any significant way. What's your take?
Comments (13)
Our company has already dumped Red Hat in favor of FreeBSD.
Posted by BillyBob | December 4, 2006 7:17 PM
We're dumping Novell in favor of RedHat; I presume *not* the reaction Steve expected!
Posted by Me | December 4, 2006 9:38 PM
We are already a SUSE shop as me moved to SUSE around the time of RedHat 9.
The Microsoft/Novell hype/hot air agreement plays well with non-technical manangement and for us seems to be playing well when talking to possible Microsoft based customers who are not sure about Linux and what it means in their business.
The changes of a RedHat shop moving to a new distro just because of the current hype/hot are must be close to zero.
Posted by Roger | December 5, 2006 3:14 AM
Microsoft appears to be running scared. The FUD is increasing exponentially and will continue to do until they get their latest attempt at an "OS" deployed. I believe they have much to fear.
My wife is ramping up a bead business that thanks to eBay has me staying up nights. We run Fedora on three clients and had SUSE 10.1 on a server. Fortunately, I wasn't too far along to change to Fedora on the server so bye, bye Novell. I just hope Red Hat has the backbone to withstand the FUD.
Posted by pcwright | December 5, 2006 12:02 PM
Ballmer's history proves he is a bully and a criminal. Let the mafia Don say what IP he has. All he can ever do is act like a bully without limbs. It's a toothless tiger with a high voice.
Posted by Roy Schestowitz | December 5, 2006 12:43 PM
I use Microsoft products in my business, am a Certified Beta Tester for several companies besides the one I mentioned, and would never use any form of Linux. Red Hat and Novell simply charge too much for support, far more than Microsoft. Even were their product(s) cheaper, I have tested both on non-business use computers and have found them too buggy. After all, Firefox, that open-source browser, has had product defects since inception. And it seems that not one Linux product out there is out of Beta, since all seem to evolve daily, is either.
Posted by Joe F. Jones | December 5, 2006 4:01 PM
It will never affect me since I don't have any MS products at home. I've used Red Hat Linux since version 6.1. My company uses Fedora core on all servers. Red Hat is the only OS I can trust. Period.
Posted by Larry Heart | December 5, 2006 6:08 PM
More and More MS bull to scare businesses into buying their CRAP. Just like when they went around "Warning" companies that illegal use of windows will cost you and better pay up now before the anvil falls.
And to all that run windows server Vs. Linus servers Who reboots more often and causes issues?
I run Fedora Core on all my Machines including the Kids. They love it.
Posted by jim | December 5, 2006 6:52 PM
My personal observation is that MS does really runned scare, hence that licensing agreement cooked up with Novell.
My organization has both MS-OS & Linux deployed. The latter wer used on mission critical/sensitive applications of which an even-steven split between Novell & RedHat, the former only for 'SOP' office apps. And we have been testing 'Humanity' distro for server type usage for the last 6mths - quite satisfied with its robustness.
Novell currentl is our topic for replacement against that new disto we are testing!
Stable security & robust networking is what Linux are and MS has got miles to catch upon. I hope RedHat & associates should hold on for vindications of their stand!
Posted by buttWizer | December 5, 2006 10:16 PM
My personal observation is that MS does really runned scare, hence that licensing agreement cooked up with Novell.
My organization has both MS-OS & Linux deployed. The latter wer used on mission critical/sensitive applications of which an even-steven split between Novell & RedHat, the former only for 'SOP' office apps. And we have been testing 'Humanity' distro for server type usage for the last 6mths - quite satisfied with its robustness.
Novell currentl is our topic for replacement against that new disto we are testing!
Stable security & robust networking is what Linux are and MS has got miles to catch upon. I hope RedHat & associates should hold on for vindications of their stand!
Posted by buttWizer | December 5, 2006 10:17 PM
My personal observation is that MS does really runned scare, hence that licensing agreement cooked up with Novell.
My organization has both MS-OS & Linux deployed. The latter wer used on mission critical/sensitive applications of which an even-steven split between Novell & RedHat, the former only for 'SOP' office apps. And we have been testing 'Humanity' distro for server type usage for the last 6mths - quite satisfied with its robustness.
Novell currentl is our topic for replacement against that new disto we are testing!
Stable security & robust networking is what Linux are and MS has got miles to catch upon. I hope RedHat & associates should hold on for vindications of their stand!
Posted by buttWizer | December 5, 2006 10:17 PM
My personal observation is that MS does really runned scare, hence that licensing agreement cooked up with Novell.
My organization has both MS-OS & Linux deployed. The latter wer used on mission critical/sensitive applications of which an even-steven split between Novell & RedHat, the former only for 'SOP' office apps. And we have been testing 'Humanity' distro for server type usage for the last 6mths - quite satisfied with its robustness.
Novell currentl is our topic for replacement against that new disto we are testing!
Stable security & robust networking is what Linux are and MS has got miles to catch upon. I hope RedHat & associates should hold on for vindications of their stand!
Posted by buttWizer | December 5, 2006 10:18 PM
We've never believed the FUD about patents. I have yet to see one valid patent that Microslop holds that Linux of any flavor has infringed on.
We don't believe it and will continue migrating from Unix to Linux and examining Linux equally as preferrable (cost and support wise) as Windows in our server environment.
We just don't believe Microsoft's patent claims. No substance, no backing; just the inane, transparent mumblings of a worried child.
-Lizard
Posted by Lizard | December 7, 2006 2:49 PM