Red Hat jumping into bed with M$?

#1 29th June 2007, 06:36 AM

One day they say "never" the next day they are in 'discussion' with M$

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06...d_hat_patents/

Wayne

lazlow · #2 29th June 2007, 08:22 AM

If Redhat goes down I suspect that it is pretty much game over. I cannot think of any other destro that has deep enough pockets to fight. I cannot imagine that IBM is just standing by for all of this. I would have thought that they would be applying extreme pressure on Redhat to resist MS. I wonder how 64bit Os/2 would be?

Lets hope it is just some sort of tactic and they really do not intend to bend over.

Lazlow

#3 29th June 2007, 08:32 AM

still if MS an redhat do put pen to paper it still wont stop me from using a RedHat Based OS or fedora for that matter

#4 29th June 2007, 08:35 AM

We can only wait and see... if RH go then I'm sure it won't be long till Ubuntu have to follow.

There is no 64bit OS/2, there is no OS/2 period

The only product available is eComStation, built on the last version of OS/2 (Warp 4.52) For a new user it's pretty expensive and multi-processor support costs an arm and a leg. M$ still own parts of the system and licence fees have to be paid. Apart from that there are no up-to-date useful apps. They are working on a port of OpenOffice but that will set you back more ££££$$$$. I refuse to pay for stuff other users get for free. Hardware support is another headache and forget multimedia stuff too!

Looks like the only choices left open would be one of the BSDs or Solaris!

Wayne

giulix · #5 29th June 2007, 08:50 AM

All at once Debian looks a viable option

Hell, even Slackware

John the train · #6 29th June 2007, 09:03 AM

There are signs that M$ is struggling somewhat - poor Vista take up, security issues while Red Hat get a top security rating... - and they need a propaganda coup to distract attention from their problems. Maybe Red Hat are just playing them along, then will very publicly tel MS to ' go to Hell or Texas ' - apologies to our Texan members. I certainly hope so!

psyklops · #7 29th June 2007, 09:18 AM

I've always been looking for a reason to switch to Ubuntu... and this will certainly do it for me.

#8 29th June 2007, 09:21 AM

Well, Hasta La Vista isn't doing as well as they claim it is and now they're making it easier for their 'partners' to downgrade to XP till the wrinkles are ironed out. The writer of this column is a complete macaroon though:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=543

Wayne

#9 29th June 2007, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leigh123@linux

She ain't bad for a women and I have read a few blogs by Mary Jo Foley.

The last line in her blog says it all " All this sounds good on (virtual) paper."

Well, she raised a few hackles when she claimed that Apple had taken all their innovation in OS X from Vista! A lot of people were wondering what she was smoking!

Wayne

John the train · #10 29th June 2007, 10:53 AM

Wayne, remember the Fawlty Towers episode where a psychiatrist says ' there's enough material here for a whole conference ' ( of Basil ) ? There's probably enough material in M$ and it's mouthpieces to take them into the next decade. I still can't decide if it's cynical lying or some extreme delusional syndrome. " I'm afraid you have Balmer's Syndrome Mr. Buoneparte. "

#11 29th June 2007, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John the train

Wayne, remember the Fawlty Towers episode where a psychiatrist says ' there's enough material here for a whole conference ' ( of Basil ) ? There's probably enough material in M$ and it's mouthpieces to take them into the next decade. I still can't decide if it's cynical lying or some extreme delusional syndrome. " I'm afraid you have Balmer's Syndrome Mr. Buoneparte. "

Remember it well, John. Looks like they need an army of trick-cyclists to go with their army of lawyers

Wayne

ibbo · #12 29th June 2007, 11:13 AM

Hmm at first glance i find nothing to worry about.

I'm supprised Redhat have not elaborated upon the talk which at 2nd glace makes me think something is afoot.
Time to return to slackware methinks. They wont sell out.

Ibbo

rjstaaf · #13 29th June 2007, 03:05 PM

Geez talk about paranoia. I see nothing at this point to worry about either. RedHat did not state that they would not sign any agreements with Microsoft, just that they would not buy into a patent protection scheme. They have stated they are interested in working on interoperability with Microsoft and I would suspect this is what the talks are about. I seriously doubt we will see any deal come out of these talks as I still firmly believe RedHat truly believes in Open Source and isn't going to do anything to hurt it and Microsoft isn't really interested in interoperability....

giulix · #14 29th June 2007, 03:24 PM

Well, you're right about myself being paranoid. Fact is, I believed there could be no sharing of intents/interests between M$ and Linux, then Novell proved me wrong. Now I wonder what else I'll be seeing from companies trying to exploit the very spirit of free software for their own good.

JN4OldSchool · #15 29th June 2007, 03:40 PM

yes, we are all paranoid. Like it or not, MS is the enemy to most of us. We dont WANT Linux collaborating with Windows. If MS is interested in working more closely with other OSs then they better come to the conclusion that THEY are the problem! Things like a standardized office format, NFS availability for Vista, ease of dual booting Microsoft products with other OSs. Heck, I'd be ecstatic if Windows would just SEE an ext3 partition. I am nowhere near an expert in this field, I have nothing to do with MS products except for my wifes Vista laptop she was FORCED into because of her job. I am all Linux and I have no interest in working with MS products...or a Linux distro that does.