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.

One of the biggest gripes the FOSS community has with respect to Microsoft's business tactics is that its longstanding exclusionary agreements with hardware vendors has stifled genuine competition. This is the very issue of one of two claims Novell will be allowed to press against Microsoft in their anti-trust lawsuit.

When Linspire 6.0 is released next month, it will include the fruits of the recently announced marriage between Linspire and Microsoft. Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony says he has been in talks with Microsoft for about a year and a half before reaching an agreement.

Over two years ago, Microsoft and Novell signed an interoperability deal. Part of this agreement was a patent deal that suggested that Linux infringed on Microsoft's IP. Since then, Microsoft has signed a number more of these deals with various companies, but the Novell one is still the most famous.

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 signed with Novell, and then got all "everyone else is violating our patents". This article talks about what was EXCLUDED from the Novell/Microsoft agreement, and the potential this has for a Microsoft attack.

MS has been doing their usual patent FUD, while Novell is sprouting how wonderful interoperability is. Same agreement, two different views. Now that's odd. Typically, you'd expect all parties involved in an agreement to be singing the same tune. So what's going on here? Well, someone points out the obvious.

Thursday, June 07, 2007: Microsoft Corp. and LG Electronics have entered into a patent cross-licence agreement to further the development of the companies ’ current and future product lines. Through the agreement, LGE will be able to use Microsoft-patented innovations in its products, including Linux-based embedded devices.

Novell has announced an agreement with Microsoft to settle potential antitrust litigation related to Novell’s NetWare operating system in exchange for $536 million in cash.