In a move that's going to raise a lot of eyebrows, Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network to 'protect Linux and other important open source workloads from patent assertions'.
For those who haven't heard of the OIN, their mission statement is quite a simple and honourable one "The Open Invention Network is a shared defensive patent pool with the mission to protect Linux.". To find out more about the OIN see here.
Hold the phone, this isn't gaming news?
Correct. However, this is still very interesting and extremely surprising from a company that has been pretty hostile to Linux in the past. It's the kind of move that could result in some big shifts in the entire industry.
We know Microsoft’s decision to join OIN may be viewed as surprising to some; it is no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community over the issue of patents. For others who have followed our evolution, we hope this announcement will be viewed as the next logical step for a company that is listening to customers and developers and is firmly committed to Linux and other open source programs.
Surprising is one word for it! Honestly, I'm in shock at this news. Does this mean we can firmly put the "Embrace, extend, and extinguish" phrase to rest and replace it with Embrace, extend, and protect? With Microsoft joining, they're bringing with them around 60,000 patents.
Moves like that, makes me seriously think about how Microsoft have changed, especially since their previous CEO Steve Ballmer called Linux "a cancer".
I think it also shows how far Linux has come as a platform for all things too, especially with Microsoft having a "Windows Subsystem for Linux" along with their support for running Linux on their Azure cloud computing platform.
What do you think to this?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
"If you can't beat them, join them"
Last edited by jens on 10 October 2018 at 8:31 pm UTC
Quoting: razing32the CoC Linux added seems to value politics over code quality.
Please stop listening to the trolls. There is nothing in the CoC that says that you must accept code from people, all it dictates is the way you reply when you e.g reject a patch. There is no coup going on in the Kernel either, it's not the foundation that says that Linus is taking a sabbatical, it's Linus himself.
Quoting: F.UltraQuoting: razing32the CoC Linux added seems to value politics over code quality.
Please stop listening to the trolls. There is nothing in the CoC that says that you must accept code from people, all it dictates is the way you reply when you e.g reject a patch. There is no coup going on in the Kernel either, it's not the foundation that says that Linus is taking a sabbatical, it's Linus himself.
Thanks. Full ack on this.
Quoting: jensI'm pretty sure that this is just a rationale long term business decision and that there is no huge conspiracy behind it.You're probably right. Now if only I were clear on the exact difference between those two things.
Quoting: GuestI expect them to turn Windows into a Linux distro + proprietary libraries/API/DE at some point. It will be cheaper for them to maintain, will be able to enter most markets Windows can't enter/dominate now, like mobiles/servers, and will still allow them to be top dog, assuming they create a good and polished Linux based desktop OS and make linux-compatible versions of their stuff like Office...Man if Windows becomes a Linux distro it's going to become tricky telling people they should switch to Linux.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: jensI'm pretty sure that this is just a rationale long term business decision and that there is no huge conspiracy behind it.You're probably right. Now if only I were clear on the exact difference between those two things.
Alright, I should have omitted the second part of that sentence. Sensible topic ;)
Quoting: SalvatosMan if Windows becomes a Linux distro it's going to become tricky telling people they should switch to Linux.
My only concern would be that they start saying: "Linux was difficult, but Microsoft made it easy".
Until now, commercial distros (like SailfishOS) and Android distributors (commonly mobile device manufacturers) had to pay MS for this stuff.
Last edited by Shmerl on 10 October 2018 at 9:43 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlWhat I wonder about, is whether exFAT and ActiveSync implementations can be used in Linux distros without patent threats from MS now.
No: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2018/10/10/microsoft-oin-exfat.html
QuoteMost importantly, the non-aggression pact only applies to the upstream versions of software, including Linux itself. [...] While we at Conservancy were successful in getting the code that implements exfat for Linux released under GPL (by Samsung), that code has not been upstreamed into Linux. So, Microsoft has not included any patents they might hold on exfat into the patent non-aggression pact.
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