eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
On July 5, Microsoft quietly released a “Covenant to Customers” to clear up how it is handling its patent deal with Linux distributor Linspire.
Instead, it did little but puzzle and annoy members of the Linux community.
Roy Schestowitz, a well-known open-source advocate and author, for example, wrote in his article “Can Linspire Still Feed on Ubuntu (or Debian) Linux Codebase?” that “Microsoft has disavowed any GPLv3-licensed software. Ubuntu will be moving toward the new tool chain, which is GPLv3-licensed.
“Linspire needs Ubuntu, which is the core on which it builds its products.
If Linspire carries on adopting Ubuntu as its codebase or even falls back (some would say forward) to Debian, any patent indemnification will then be rendered moot.”
Indeed, according to Microsofts memo, Microsofts patent protection only applies only to “Linspire Five-0 and successor offerings” on a desktop. Server use is specifically forbidden.