Linux unites long time rivals, Microsoft & Linspire

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday cemented a patent partnership with its onetime bitter rival, Linspire Inc, under which the software giant will license instant messaging and digital media technology to the latter company, and in return Linspire will license Microsoft code related to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Windows Media files and TrueType fonts.

Originally known as "lindows," Linspire Inc, which sells Linux-based personal computers through Wal-Mart and other retailers, was once sued by Redmond company for its original name and first Linux operating system.

After signing a Windows and Linux interoperability agreement, San Diego-based Linux desktop provider has become the third company, after Novell and Xandros, to strike a patent deal with Microsoft.

"Linspire has always been about choice, and this announcement continues our tradition of offering options for improved interoperability, enhanced functionality and confidence," said Kevin Carmony, Linspire CEO.

"Over the years, in an effort to expand choice, we have entered into dozens of agreements with commercial software vendors. It certainly made sense to collaborate with Microsoft, one of the most important partners in the PC ecosystem."

Microsoft’s yesterday’s collaboration, which is the latest in a series of agreements by software mammoth with Linux providers, will provide Linspire users with assurance that they won't be infringing any Microsoft intellectual property and patents.

In order to improve interoperability, Linspire will license Microsoft's instant messaging audio codec that would incorporate support for Windows Live Messenger voice chat into the Pidgin instant messaging client, thus enabling consumers to voice-chat with Windows Live Messenger buddies.

Linspire also licensed Microsoft's Windows Media 10 codecs, which will bestow the Linspire users with the opportunity to watch Windows video and audio files on open-source media players, and view and create documents using familiar typefaces.

Moreover, Linspire will set Microsoft's Live Search service as the default browser search engine on PCs that run its operating system. Under the terms of the Microsoft-Linspire deal, Linux vendor's customers will receive certain IM, digital media and TrueType fonts such as Ariel, Georgia, Times New Roman and Verdana if they purchase a patent SKU.

In addition to its direct collaboration with Microsoft, Linspire has also agreed to join the partnership between Microsoft and other companies to provide open source translators between the Open XML and OpenDocument formats, used by Office 2007 and OpenOffice respectively.

Redmond-based Microsoft will get revenue from the patent licensing however it will be offered only in paid copies of Linspire, not the free Freespire version.

Last year in November, Microsoft Corp. entered into a broad partnership with its longtime rival Novell Inc. to harmonize their products. The two companies said they collaborated to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft products work better together. The involved parties have agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both SUSE Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers.

Microsoft aims to encourage Linux dependant large tech companies to ink patent deals initiating with its controversial pact with Novell. Linux protection also played a role in recent patent swap deals with Samsung and Fuji Xerox as cited by Microsoft.

Linux, one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software (FOSS), has been accused of violating 42 Microsoft patents and an additional 65 by its user interface and other design elements. Also, OpenOffice.org is accused of infringing 45, along with 83 more in other free and open-source programs, making it a total of more than 230 patents violation as stated by Microsoft’s top lawyer Brad Smith, last month, in an interview with America’s business magazine, Fortune.

According to a survey Linux is the most popular open source operating system in the market and is a big competitive challenge for Microsoft as it allows a company to do more remote network administration and software loads than was possible with Microsoft that drives down their network management costs. Also Microsoft is more expensive than Linux because Microsoft is a propriety code whereas Linux is an open source.