Comments

• John Drinkwater

  2007-06-29 15:42:25

  IMHO: His quote backs up Red Hat's stance, maybe it's just a poor choice of words, due to it being targetted at investors.
  
  The important quote: "…to participate with Microsoft around standards and about improving the customer relationship and experience of being able to operate successfully within a heterogeneous environment," is everything RH has been saying all along.
  
  And on patents: "Our position hasn’t moved and it’s been the same for as long as I’ve been at Red Hat.”

• shane coyle

  2007-06-29 17:32:57

  Yeah, and he specifically says 'around standards', which is in line with their previously espoused stance on interoperability as well.
  
  Probably nothing to worry about, Novell had serious financial problems when MS knocked on their door, Red Hat's business is soaring - why alienate their developers for a less-than-useless patent pledge?

• kripken

  2007-06-29 18:23:49

  As I follow the Red Hat announcements, it seems pretty obvious what they are getting at (as I see things, at least).
  
  Basically Red Hat are a for-profit corporation, with FOSS ideals at heart. Because of those ideals, they won't sign a vague 'patent covenant' like Novell did. Yet, if Microsoft shows the actual patents publicly, and they are found to be a serious issue, Red Hat will have no choice but to arrive at a deal (or, barring some technical workaround, stop doing business in the US).

• Roy Schestowitz

  2007-06-30 01:36:56

  Thanks for the clarifications. The eye-catching headline and the following part of the sentence led me to far-fetched speculations.
  
  "...hasn’t moved and it’s been the same for as long as I’ve been at Red Hat"