Bonum Certa Men Certa

Founding CEO of TurboLinux No Longer at TurboLinux

TurboLinux news



Summary: Cliff Miller from TurboLinux is now at DeviceVM; a snapshot of what TurboLinux is currently up to

THE last vendor of desktop/server-targeted GNU/Linux to have signed a patent deal with Microsoft was TurboLinux. That was in late 2007 when Microsoft's Linux racket [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] had already run low on steam.

We are still looking mostly at the "main four", where hardware is not involved (so software patents only -- if any -- may apply): Novell, Xandros, Linspire, and TurboLinux. Linspire was folded onto Xandros, which simplifies the picture. As for TurboLinux, it is rarely mentioned anywhere these days. Some publications that speak foreign languages (usually from Asia) may still occasionally mention TurboLinux by name, whereas in the English-speaking press it is rare for TurboLinux to make it into large lists of vendors and sometimes a keyword-stuffed press release.

If one looks carefully at the news this week, it turns out that DeviceVM hired the founding CEO of TurboLinux, which means he is no longer at TurboLinux.

Miller, the founding CEO of TurboLinux, brings extensive software platform experience to the DeviceVM executive team.

San Jose, CA (Advertiser Talk) 28-Aug-2009 — DeviceVM, maker of the award-winning Splashtop€® instant-on platform, today announced the appointment of Cliff Miller to the newly created position of Chief Strategy Officer. Miller will be responsible for corporate development and strategic customer and partner relationships.

Cliff Miller is widely recognized for his role in commercializing Linux in Asia. As the founder and CEO of TurboLinux, Miller created a leading platform for enterprise computing in Japan and China.


The item above is from the 28th of August, but it seems to go back a few months, as far back as June. There are even prior observations. Here is the DeviceVM page.

“Microsoft has not signed any such patent deal in about 2 years. Leaving them behind would be very helpful indeed.”Is TurboLinux falling apart after its deal with Microsoft? Either way, this is one route to having Microsoft's FUD squashed for good. Microsoft has not signed any such patent deal in about 2 years. Leaving them behind would be very helpful indeed.

TurboLinux is not very lively. There is hardly any news in their Web site at the moment. 5 news items span a period of 2 years and 40% of these is about the love affair with Microsoft. The flagship product at the moment -- the one which appears at the front page -- is about Windows. It says in the accompanying press release: "Because all users are unified under a single management scheme, business controls and compliance can be better adhered to, and because of the partnership between Turbolinux and Microsoft in jointly developing this new software with explicit patent permission, a safe and secure mixed Turbolinux and Microsoft Windows environment can be provided."

Thank goodness for the "explicit patent permission". It must mean that horrible things would happen without it, so only Turbolinux is the "approved" vendor. Novell has harnessed the same type of spiel.

"Now [Novell is] little better than a branch of Microsoft"

--LinuxToday Managing Editor



I'm Linux

Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually