Novell's Finally Sold: Going To Attachmate & Microsoft

[RagingDragon]

Why would a VC trio sue Red Hat? If they are indirectly, ehm, encouraged by Microsoft, you can bet the FTC will fall upon them like a flock of hungry crows.

Besides, what's there to sue about? The IP went to Microsoft, not Attachmate (more on that below). Attachmate may or may not have got the Unix trademark (I think Novell sold that back in 1996 or so, but I'm not sure) but that's not an issue (GNU's not Unix ;-).) They also got the source code for SUSE, Mono et al and that's about it. Most of this is safe (MIT/X11 and (L)GPL) and Red Hat doesn't use Novell's closed stuff anyway.

What's more worrying is the IP transfer from Novell to Microsoft. In short, Microsoft bought 882 patents from Novell (that's their whole portfolio, give or take a few), which is bound to cover some juicy bits. Now, Microsoft's intent is unclear here, and that's kinda worrying. My guess is they will be used in the mobile patent clusterfuck (Apple vs Google/Android vs Blackberry vs new Win7Mo) and might prove useful against Oracle in the not-too-distant future.

It is also possible that we will see some strengthened FUD against Linux but a direct attack is highly unlikely.

This was probably a defensive move my Microsoft. A good chunk of Novell's patents cover it's directory and enterprise remote administration products. MS offers similar products, this move prevents a patent troll from picking up the patents and using them against MS.

[V!NCENT]

This was probably a defensive move my Microsoft. A good chunk of Novell's patents cover it's directory and enterprise remote administration products. MS offers similar products, this move prevents a patent troll from picking up the patents and using them against MS.

*Sigh*

Bla bla bla bla....

[V!NCENT]

1 + 1 = you're being paranoid.

Xenix is also UNIX. d-;

1+1=Trolo lol lol lol lololololoool... "This product case needs a official proffesional Unix certified label!" -after the Microsoft designs the iPhone package video.

[BlackStar]

1+1=Trolo lol lol lol lololololoool... "This product case needs a official proffesional Unix certified label!" -after the Microsoft designs the iPhone package video.

Ok, that video was pure genius. Thanks!

Extra points for being designed by Microsoft employees as a self-parody.

[mirv]

Novell will continue to own the UNIX IP.
Read here.