06.18.07
Red Hat Responds to Microsoft’s Mistake and Spurious FUD
As SCO found out, threatening your own customers is always a bad strategy. Red Hat points out that Microsoft does something similar, which may ultimately drive away its own customers.
Microsoft going around threatening customers with patent litigation does not make good business sense. This is according to Red Hat’s Middle East and Africa channel sales manager, David Postel, who was speaking in Johannesburg last week.
Jonathan Schwartz said something similar about a month ago. Meanwhile, in the muchly-influenced mainstream media, FUD continues to be spread and Red Hat remains a victim of disinformation. Here is what they had to say:
A narrative is forming around Microsoft’s patent FUD campaign, and it’s not a paean to their business acumen, nor an ode to their brinksmanship. The real story is more of a folktale-in-progress that turns on a simple dramatic question: What is Red Hat going to do?
As Red hat said many times before, patent deals are not going to happen.
Burt Aliko said,
June 18, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Why doesn’t Red Hat ask Sun for protection against Microsoft. Sun owns their IP, they could afford to protect Red Hat from litigation. Without it, Red Hat seems at great risk!
Roy Schestowitz said,
June 18, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Burt,
Last month, Sun offered its IP and said it would protect Linux if necessary. Jonathan Schwartz posted this in his blog.