Mandriva Fattens the Linux Rows of "No Thanks Microsoft!"

Mandriva is the latest Linux distributor to follow in the footsteps of Red Hat and Ubuntu and to say no to Microsoft. The Redmond Company opened its arms wide to the Linux community with the Windows and Linux interoperability agreement inked with Novell in November 2006, but also with allegations that free and open source software infringes upon in excess of 235 Microsoft patents. The Redmond Company's General Counsel Brad Smith and Vice President of Intellectual Property and Licensing Horacio Gutierrez revealed in May 2007 that Linux alone violates 107 Microsoft patents, 42 for the kernel and 65 for the graphical user interface, with OpenOffice infringing on an additional 45 patents.

But while Novell, Xandros and Linspire have hurried to jump on the Microsoft Windows - Linux interoperability wagon and to benefit from intellectual property assurance, Red Hat and Ubuntu have dismissed Microsoft's claims, welcoming only the interoperability efforts. Mandriva is yet another example of a similar strategy.

"Novell, Xandros and Linspire have signed well publicized agreements with Microsoft. Rumors on the Web have hinted that we might be next on the list. So we would like to clarify our position. (...) We believe what we see, and up to now, there has been absolutely no hard evidence from any of the FUD propagators that Linux and open source applications are in breach of any patents. So we think that, as in any democracy, people are innocent unless proven guilty and we can continue working in good faith. So we don't believe it is necessary for us to get protection from Microsoft to do our job or to pay protection money to anyone," stated Francois Bancilhon, Mandriva CEO.

Bancilhon added that the key to heterogeneous environments is interoperability and that a bridge between Microsoft and Linux is essential in this context. But the best way to interoperability is in Bancilhon's perspective open standards and not patent protection.