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In a move that's going to raise a lot of eyebrows, Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network to 'protect Linux and other important open source workloads from patent assertions'.
For those who haven't heard of the OIN, their mission statement is quite a simple and honourable one "The Open Invention Network is a shared defensive patent pool with the mission to protect Linux.". To find out more about the OIN see here.
Hold the phone, this isn't gaming news?
Correct. However, this is still very interesting and extremely surprising from a company that has been pretty hostile to Linux in the past. It's the kind of move that could result in some big shifts in the entire industry.
We know Microsoft’s decision to join OIN may be viewed as surprising to some; it is no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community over the issue of patents. For others who have followed our evolution, we hope this announcement will be viewed as the next logical step for a company that is listening to customers and developers and is firmly committed to Linux and other open source programs.
Surprising is one word for it! Honestly, I'm in shock at this news. Does this mean we can firmly put the "Embrace, extend, and extinguish" phrase to rest and replace it with Embrace, extend, and protect? With Microsoft joining, they're bringing with them around 60,000 patents.
Moves like that, makes me seriously think about how Microsoft have changed, especially since their previous CEO Steve Ballmer called Linux "a cancer".
I think it also shows how far Linux has come as a platform for all things too, especially with Microsoft having a "Windows Subsystem for Linux" along with their support for running Linux on their Azure cloud computing platform.
What do you think to this?
imho thats wrong. they dont need computers, we dont need computers. we need SOFTWARE and as i said: this software will run on phones in the near future
so maybe the new generation doesnt adapt to PCs, but software adapts to the new generation
Call it conspiracy if you like, but when this particular CoC has made some projects devolve into infighting, I'm not obligated to say "yeah, everything's fine with Linux."
And no, I don't really want people to convince me otherwise about these worries, please don't try (I've already read the positive comments here on both the article and the CoC and made note of them). I've been burned too many times by too many people/projects in the past to let this kind of stuff go completely.
To get back on-topic a bit more: If Microsoft helps Linux, great, but a business with shareholders rarely stops saying "what's in it for me" and tries to do whatever possible to make sure they've made more money than the last quarter; sometimes they do it in a "nice" way, sometimes they do it in an asshole way.
It isn't exactly Microsoft that I'm innately suspect of, it's any publicly traded company. Good things in companies or companies themselves can fail because of shareholders getting too poor. (Glad Valve has stayed private...)
All we can do is wait and see... (EDIT: put an extra word in for clarity)
Last edited by namiko at 11 October 2018 at 11:28 am UTC
If we benefit from it as much as Darwin from Mac OS or BSD from Playstation OS, then I'm not sure it would be that great... Microsoft might start boasting around saying: "Hey, look, we love Linux, we actually made it better! Our Linux runs UWP Apps!"
Last edited by Nevertheless at 11 October 2018 at 11:49 am UTC
If that happened we'd have to protect Linux from Microsoft once more. This time from within. They will start to influence kernel development more.. That's one big coocoo in our nest...
It is only natural that Microsoft, maybe even a bit more than any other corporation, wants and needs a certain degree of control over everything they invest in. The more they depend on an investment, the more control they will want over it. So a strategic investment in Linux is not the problem, but what follows out of it is very uncertain...
I guess we have to watch their behaviour very closely, to get better views on their whole strategy. They might seem a lot friendlier than before, they might even release some free tools (that people can use to work on MS related things), but do they generally open up? Will they stop closing down gaming for example? We will have to see!
Last edited by Nevertheless at 11 October 2018 at 12:50 pm UTC
That means they will be losing a lot of revenue making this move. There's got to be something they are getting that's worth that dip. What is it?
Being a member means you pledge not to sue other OIN members over patents you contribute to the OIN pool. Both Google and Oracle are members, for example...
What's protected from patent litigation is furthermore defined as the Linux System.
BTW you can join the OIN as a physical person with 0 patent at no cost *hint hint*
So the broad claim of "protect[ing] Linux and open source" is a tad misleading... As with any PR dept (especially microsoft's), read between the lines and scrutinize, folks.
Now, as cynical as I can be, I still applaud the move, but am left with the same nagging "what's in it for them" feeling.
For one thing, it means that microsoft still believes in the legitimacy of software patents.
Personally I see the OIN the same way I see WINE/Proton: a currently unfortunate necessity yet still a stop-gap until something better comes along, instead of some kind of be-all, end-all silver bullet.
One question here is if this is really a policy change in Microsoft or if they are more or less forced to go this way to stay relevant in the Enterprise/Cloud environment where they want to grow. I hardly think that the their expectation was that the majority of instances on Azure should be Linux servers when they first launched the service, and the very fact that this is so probably scares them somewhat.