No sell out for Ubuntu

“Do you think we’re gonna sell out? I say if we do we get the hell out.” – Public Enemy, “Bring the Noise”

Now this is the way blogging should work. Disturbed by rumors that Linux-based platform provider Ubuntu was in negotiations with Microsoft vis-à-vis a new collaboration agreement, Ubuntu Foundation Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life Mark Shuttleworth took matters into his own hands at his blog Here Be Dragons.

The key point of the Saturday entry was put in bold, so that no mistake would be made: “We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements.”

It is unclear where rumors of a Microsoft/Ubuntu collaboration came from, but they seem a logical outgrowth of a couple of news items from the big company as of late. About one week ago, Microsoft and Linux platform provider Xandros Inc. signed such an agreement calling for technical, business, marketing and intellectual property commitments.

The deal was the latest in a series for Microsoft, which also made agreements with Linux platform and open source software providers including Novell Inc., JBoss, XenSource Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Zend Technologies Inc.

A mid-May declaration by Microsoft legal counsel Brad Smith set off a nice buzz of paranoia and was well captured by Roger Parloff of Fortune:

“The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason that free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft’s patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google, Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won’t be free anymore.”

Well, countered Shuttleworth, “Allegations of ‘infringement of unspecified patents’ carry no weight whatsoever. We don’t think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together. A promise by Microsoft not to sue for infringement of unspecified patents has no value at all and is not worth paying for. It does not protect users from the real risk of a patent suit from a pure IP holder…”

For now, it appears, Ubuntu appreciates independence.