Xandros Makes Patent Agreement with Microsoft

Xandros Corporation, the company creating the same named Linux distribution, announced yesterday a "broad collaboration agreement" with no one other than Microsoft. The agreement is similar to the one Novell closed with Microsoft last year and includes "patent covenants to not sue Xandros customers".

The partnership is said to last five years, during which the two companies should join forces for software development. This latest partnership Microsoft makes with Xandros, comes after a pretty long series of agreements with major players from the open source world, including Zend Technologies Inc., Novell Inc., JBoss or XenSource Inc.

According to Bill Hilf, general manager of Platform Strategy with Microsoft, these are partnerships with representatives of the open source community target solving problems and improving the currently way things work in fields such as server interoperability, systems management or office document formats.

"... Our announcement with Xandros is an exciting step to deliver what our mutual customers have been asking for", said Mr. Hilf.

The most controversial aspect of the agreement is of course the Intellectual property assurance. According to it, Microsoft will make available patent covenants for Xandros customers. These covenants provide customers with confidence that the Xandros technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with Microsoft's intellectual property.

Microsoft now endorses the Xandros Server and Desktop as a preferred Linux distribution, as part of the sales and marketing support. It targets to establish a much improved interoperability and deliver IP assurance for the user. Xandros in its turn will become a member of the Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance.

Andreas Typaldos, chief executive officer with Xandros stated:

"Cross-platform data centers are a reality. To meet evolving customer needs, vendors need to recognize the value of sharing intellectual property, developing more interoperable solutions, and providing management tools that are familiar and easy to use."