I hope you saw this. Today Microsoft and Novell announced a sweeping collaboration that attempts to bridge both technical and IP aspects between open source and commercial software.
I had the opportunity to participate in the announcement, and to talk with a number of the people involved.
The starting point is the reality that we live in a "mixed source" world — a world in which open source and commercial software co-exist. It has been several years since I talked to a CIO of an enterprise of government agency, or a CEO of a software firm who is not using both. And there is a role for both.
What these firms have done is to take a step toward interoperability. Technical interoperability and IP (intellectual property) interoperability. For clarity, the agreement is specifically SuSE linux.
On the technical side, you can read for yourself, but seems to me that these are good projects. virtualization stands out, and if done well, will benefit customers who use both Microsoft and Linux . In fact some people are already talking about the "hybrid operating system" — that may be stretching.
The real story from my perspective was the intellectual property story. I had to laugh when the KGO (San Francisco radio) reporter said "I have 45 seconds — can you tell me what you guys have been talking about?". I think that was direct response to the IP discussion. Nevertheless for business who use both linux and windows, Microsoft just put a check box in the SuSE column that was not there before — a "covenant" not to cause patent problems for users of SuSE linux. In other words, assume that Microsoft has patents that apply to elements of linux — if you use SuSE linux, we won't use them to bother you. As of this afternoon, none of the other linux distros can say that.
This doesn't magically clear up all the IP questions that float around the open source world by any means, but it clearly is a step by a couple of important software companies to find a way forward that brings technical value to the mixed code world — and an example of one way to address the question.
On a broader note — I think it sends a clear message to software users to be informed consumers. Know what you're getting. The questions you need to think about are:
What code have I decided to use?
What rights do I have to use it?
Where am I using it?
I think this announcement today will raise the visibility of these questions in the minds of a lot of IT professionals. More later.
