Doing the Microsoft patent dance

I’m not sure where Microsoft keeps finding the goofball Linux distributors that rush to market with a “Microsoft + Novell/Xandros = Big interoperability win/patent safety win for our customers!!!!” theme, and then release something like the following a week later when they grok that they’ve been duped into lending credence to Microsoft’s inane patent claims. First Novell did it. Now Xandros has done it.

“We need this agreement to protect our customers and achieve interoperability!” they parrot. Then, one week later, “But we really don’t need to do this because Linux doesn’t violate any Microsoft patents, nor did Microsoft reveal its claims on this matter to us.”

Complete morons.

If Linux is clean, then there’s no need for silly deals that pretend otherwise.

Now Microsoft has hired a director of Linux interoperability. Presumably this person’s role will be to threaten patent infringement suits against random passersby?

If there’s a there there, let’s hear it. Otherwise, please shut up.

And please, Novell and Xandros, don’t whine that Microsoft pulled a fast one on you, and reiterate that open source is clean. No one needed you to tell them that. Innocent until proven guilty in this country. And especially in light of all the evidence that points against such claims.