Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Reviews
It’s been clear for some time now that Red Hat is well on its way to being the first all-open source vendor to achieve billion-dollar revenues, but that doesn’t mean the FOSS community can’t cheer every time it gets a step closer. Take last week, for instance. Red Hat reported its second quarter results on Wednesday, and the prospect was nothing if not cheerful.
Patents, patents, patents. Such a to-do about software patents! The news this week has focused on little else, thanks in large part, of course, to Google’s much-discussed
purchase of Motorola Mobility. It’s fairly widely agreed that patents were the motivating factor behind that purchase — not at all surprising, given the virtual lawsuit-fest the mobile world has become.
Now that Microsoft wants to be Linux’s new best friend, there’s bound to be no end of sweet nothings and touching gestures emanating out of Redmond. After all, we’re pals now, right? Lo and behold! For all you skeptics who doubted the software behemoth’s amorous words, consider a few phrasing changes it recently made in its last two annual financial filings.
July was a Microsoft-filled month, and that trend continued right up until the very end. Case in point? Hard on the heels of Redmond’s little birthday present to Linux a few weeks ago, the Windows behemoth and SUSE announced last week that they are renewing the years-long patent deal originally signed by Novell but due to expire next year.
Those of us who have been around the block a few times here in the Linux blogosphere have seen it many times before: With one hand, Microsoft holds out a small olive branch to the Linux community, while with the other it prepares a new patent attack, posts a "cautionary" FUD-filled video, or perpetrates some other kind of anti-FOSS mischief.