A massive patent lawsuit hits Microsoft, Novell and many others

Open-source pioneer and Novell Vice President Miguel de Icaza Thursday for the first time publicly slammed his company's cross-patent licensing agreement with Microsoft as he defended himself against lack of patent protection for third parties that distribute his company's Moonlight project, which ports Microsoft's Silverlight technology to Linux.

On the back of defending the agreement this week, Novell did as promised and published details of its landmark November 2006 Linux partnership agreements with Microsoft.

Microsoft issued and spread another wave of propaganda yesterday, calling for more companies to sign patent deals like Novell's

In November of 2006, Microsoft rocked the Linux world by signing a landmark patent and interoperability agreement with Novell. According to the two partners, it's an agreement that today, two and half years later is still paying off, even during the current recession.

Mary Jo Foley notes some of the highlights of Microsoft's patent/interoperability deal with Novell, following Microsoft's own press release celebrating the deal. She says something, however, that I'm not sure I agree with

OK, so sometimes I'm wrong. Miguel de Icaza called out an error I made in criticizing Novell for its open-source strategy. I admit that I find it hard to see beyond Novell's patent pact with Microsoft but, as Miguel pointed out in a string of emails between us today (which he graciously allowed me to cite), this leaves out a lot that Novell does well.

Brian Proffitt, former Managing Editor of LinuxToday, looks at the amounts of money Novell extracts from SUSE users for Microsoft and Novell to share

Novell’s latest quarterly financial results, revealed today, were a mixed bag for the SUSE Linux provider. Novell made progress in some areas. But didn’t really thrive in others. Where does the company go from here? The answers will likely surface at the Novell BrainShare. Here are the details.