Krishwords

We have seen the bullying tactics of Microsoft for a long time. Off late, it was keeping quiet. They tried to bully businesses thinking about open source with their “get the facts” campaign, albeit without any facts. It didn’t work. They tried to bully Mail Service provider to adopt their Sender ID program. It didn’t work either. After their unsuccessful attempts to bully the open source movement, they tried to show that they are reaching out to open source community. Their open source software labs tried to reach out to open source community. They released Sender ID under Microsoft Open Specification Promise. They invited Mozilla developers to Redmond campus to discuss with them about supporting Firefox and Thunderbird in Windows Vista. They even sent a cake congratulating Mozilla team on the launch of Firefox 2. I am not sure what their strategy was but if they had expected Open Source Community to run behind them, it is just a day dream. They inked an agreement with Novell in the early November. They tried to tout it as a deal on interoperability, it was more of a legal indemnification for their respective customers. This deal fell flat as soon as it tried to take off. Then Microsoft tried to do the same with Redhat and got rebuffed. Once they realized that their strategy will not work with open source community, they tried to use the strong arm tactics. Steve Ballmer crowed in Seattle last week warning the Linux users of drastic consequences. Red Herring reports about the whine of Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking at a conference in Seattle last week, said Microsoft signed the deal with Novell because Linux uses Microsoft’s intellectual property and Microsoft wants to get the “appropriate economic return” for its innovation. He also stated that anyone who uses a non-SuSe version of Linux is infringing on Microsoft patents.

“If a customer says, ‘Look, do we have liability for the use of your patented work?’ Essentially, if you’re using non-SUSE Linux, then I’d say the answer is yes,” Mr. Ballmer told eWeek.com recently, referring to the Linux system sold by Novell.

“I suspect that [customers] will take that issue up with their distributor,” Mr. Ballmer said, adding that if customers considered doing a direct download of a non-SUSE Linux version, “they’ll think twice about that.”

After listening to Steve Ballmer’s talk, Novell became desperate and its CEO wrote an open letter to the Open Source Community in which he stated that he disagrees with Microsoft on its statements. I am pretty sure that their deal will come to an end as fast as it started. If Novell doesn’t move out of Microsoft, they are going to pay heavily due to the open source community’s reaction to the Microsoft’s new bullying tactics. It is high time Novell moves out of their deal with Microsoft. The open source community will definitely teach a lesson to Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: Open Source, Opensource, Novell, Microsoft, Bullying tactics, SenderID, Redhat