MS helping Linux via Novell?

A number of open source commentators have poured scorn on the agreement between Microsoft and Novell on the latter's SUSE Linux distribution. Pamela Jones of Groklaw points out that the agreement is a covenant not to sue, not a real cross-licensing agreement and notes that it can be updated or cancelled at any time by Microsoft.

Bruce Perens of Technocrat says that it sets up Microsoft to assert its patents against all commercial open source users.

The Seattle PI notes a little clause that says Novell will be paying ongoing royalty payments to Microsoft based on a proportion of its revenues from sales of SUSE. This is forbidden by the GNU General Public License, noted the Free Software Foundation's general counsel Eben Moglen. Microsoft's and Novell's lawyers really should have spotted that one.

Red Hat has affirmed its commitment to the Fedora Project, the community-driven version of its Linux distribution.

In the wake of Novell's deal with Microsoft, the founder of the Fedora Project at Red Hat, Warren Togami, emphasised that Red Hat invests in free and open source development because it makes business sense, it cements technology leadership and because it benefits society.

"As long as I work on the Fedora Project, Fedora will never compromise on the essential liberties of FOSS nor will it betray the community," he wrote.

Italy has celebrated Linux Day in style with over 100 cities around the country hosting "installfests", introductions to programming, and user experiences.

Linux.com also reports feedback from the Bank of Italy which is using FLOSS internally.

Thanks to Groklaw, Technocrat, the Seattle PI, the Fedora Project and Linux.com.