Underexposed

Open-source fans can be a skeptical bunch, but I've seen their collective opinions shift--for example in the gradually diminishing loathing for Sun Microsystems as that company stopped deriding Linux and started moving its portfolio to open-source software.

So it's not a surprise that various representatives had a mixed reaction to Microsoft's move Thursday to share details of its technology with open-source programmers.

The move could make it easier for many projects to work well with Microsoft products and potentially replace them--for example the Thunderbird e-mail software could communicate better with Microsoft Exchange servers and also displace Microsoft Outlook on PCs. But Microsoft also made it clear that a pledge not to sue open-source programmers only applied in "non-commercial" contexts, so open-source fans didn't get everything they want.

And even though Microsoft said it now will share the specific list of patents it says it has on technology it wants to license to others--something open-source fans have sought once Microsoft asserted last year that Linux and other projects violate 235 patents--some see signing licenses as incompatible with open-source license requirements.

For its part, Microsoft is pledging to move beyond its historically adversarial treatment of the open-source realm. "As Microsoft takes this significant step forward into the interconnected world of the future, we aspire to doing so with members of the open source community by our side now and for the long haul," said Bill Hilf, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy, on his blog. Hilf previously ran Microsoft's Linux lab and was an Linux deployment specialist at IBM.

I surveyed various companies and individuals about the move and received some other thoughts unsolicited. Here are some reactions:

• Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation executive director: "The world of software development has been marching in a steady direction toward being open and transparent. As Linux's use continues to rise, so does the demand for customers to enable it to interoperate with Microsoft products. This announcement by Microsoft seems to indicate they want to participate in that march. Even if some of the announced details still seem less than ideal for open source developers, at least it's a first step."

• Michael Cunningham, Red Hat's general counsel: "Red Hat regards this most recent announcement with a healthy dose of skepticism. Three commitments by Microsoft would show that it really means what it is announcing today:

"Commit to open standards: Rather than pushing forward its proprietary, Windows-based formats for document processing, OOXML, Microsoft should embrace the existing ISO-approved, cross-platform industry standard for document processing, Open Document Format (ODF) at the International Standards Organization's meeting next week in Geneva...

"Commit to interoperability with open source: Instead of offering a patent license for its protocol information on the basis of licensing arrangements it knows are incompatible with the GPL (General Public License)--the world's most widely used open source software license--Microsoft should extend its Open Specification Promise to all of the interoperability information that it is announcing today will be made available...

"Commit to competition on a level playing field: Microsoft's announcement today appears carefully crafted to foreclose competition from the open-source community. How else can you explain a 'promise not to sue open-source developers' as long as they develop and distribute only 'non-commercial' implementations of interoperable products? This is simply disingenuous."

• Miguel de Icaza, founder of the GNOME project and a Novell programmer working on Mono, an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .Net software: "As a chess move, it is a fascinating one...On the surface it looks very good. (There are) lots of things that we want to interoperate with--Office, SQL Server, SharePoint. Getting the documentation to everyone sounds great, and it seems like they are serious about doing more interoperability work...When the full list for patents becomes available, the question is what will open-source vendors do if they find pieces that have historically infringed: will they choose to license and be the recipients of the community wrath, or will they hold their grounds and risk a lawsuit?"

• Jeremy Allison, a founder of the Samba open-source project: "The devil is in the details. If they can follow through with this, the world will be a better place...It doesn't mean any change for us (Samba) as we already had all these documents, and the promise not to sue is only for 'non-commercial' open source, which is a bit meaningless. At least everyone now gets access to the same info, which I'm very happy about. Hey, should we ask for our money back ? :-)."

• Matt Asay, vice president of business development for Alfresco and a writer for CNET's Blog Network: "The really big news is Microsoft's commitment to open APIs (application programming interfaces) and open protocols...It's great news, and it's big news. My company has been seeking this API and protocol information for months (years, really). But Microsoft's pledge doesn't obviate the need to negotiate patent royalties, if required, with the company."

• Andi Gutmans, a co-founder of Zend: "I have no doubt Microsoft is doing the right thing for their business. I believe Microsoft has finally understood that their closed nature has significantly hindered the growth of their ecosystem...Microsoft has had a strong Microsoft-centric ecosystem, but going down this path they are able to extend their applicable market beyond today's reach...I believe the PHP community can only benefit from this move. With PHP being a heterogeneous solution which works on pretty much any operating system, any database and any Web Server; the more interoperability capabilities it has with all open-source and proprietary solutions the better...Microsoft's all or nothing approach has been an accelerator for the adoption of open-source operating systems. While I am a big fan of Linux, I do believe that this is going to put an increasing amount of pressure on the Linux/Unix backers to deliver innovation and value on top of these systems."

Microsoft made major concessions Thursday that should make it easier for open-source software to dovetail with or even replace Microsoft products, but a major caveat means the company's legal threats remain alive and well.

Microsoft announced a number of moves that could significantly improve its relationship with the open-source world. Among other things, the company said it will share communication protocols that govern how Microsoft software products communicate; pledged not to sue open-source programmers for developing software that uses those interfaces; and launched an Open Source Interoperability Initiative to improve how well open-source software works with its own.

Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie (left) and CEO Steve Ballmer.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Although programmers now are apparently free to reproduce the software, Microsoft's generosity ends when the software crosses the threshold from project to commercial product.

"Microsoft is providing a covenant not to sue open-source developers for development or noncommercial distribution of implementations of these protocols," the company said. "Companies that engage in commercial distribution of these protocol implementations will be able to obtain a patent license from Microsoft, as will enterprises that obtain these implementations from a distributor that does not have such a patent license."

In other words, Microsoft hasn't backed down from its insistence that its intellectual property isn't free for the taking, an assertion made most clearly in 2007 when Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Linux and other open-source projects violate 235 Microsoft patents.

"The promise not to sue is only for 'noncommercial' open source, which is a bit meaningless," said Jeremy Allison, a founder of the open-source Samba project that lets Linux servers substitute for Windows file and print servers by emulating the required Microsoft communication protocols.

The Thursday move suggests two forms of patent agreements. First is one in the mold of the controversial Microsoft partnership with Novell from 2006 and various other smaller Linux companies afterward. The second is an agreement directly with customers that use open-source software such as Red Hat's Linux, as Ballmer suggested last October when he said, "People (who) use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to eventually to compensate us."

It's not likely Microsoft opened up its specifications and made its pledges Thursday out of the goodness of its heart. As the open-source movement and its free-software predecessor have matured over more than two decades, Microsoft has found it necessary to make accommodations.

First, the open-source programming philosophy outdid Microsoft in an area where it previously had been a leader, fostering communities of developers. Second, there have been years of antitrust litigation, first by the United States and more recently from the European Union, that called on Microsoft to share. The third, and perhaps strongest reason, is that open-source software has become a powerful force in the software industry and customer sites--and even at Yahoo, the Internet company Microsoft is trying to acquire for $44.6 billion in part because of its engineering expertise.

The Samba case illustrates the pressures on Microsoft. In December, Samba announced a complicated third-party arrangement that in effect gives it access to Microsoft's communication protocols, a move that came shortly after the European Union required Microsoft to share interoperability information with open-source projects.

Sharing protocols, while it makes it easier for others to interoperate or clone Microsoft products, also could serve to entrench Microsoft's products by making its in-house protocols into de facto industry standards.

Take OOXML, the office document format Microsoft is trying to standardize as an alternative to the ODF that was spawned from the OpenOffice.org software, an open-source rival to Microsoft Office. "The approval of OOXML, for instance, is seen as crucial by Microsoft as a means of maintaining its Office market share," The 451 Group, an analyst firm, said in a statement Thursday.

And as ZDnet blogger Mary Jo Foley noted, the ISO standards group is meeting in Geneva next week to vote on whether OOXML should be awarded official standard status.

Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners said Thursday it and unnamed Middle Eastern partners will fund The SCO Group with up to $100 million to take over the financially beleaguered Unix company, move it out of bankruptcy protection, complete its controversial and unsuccessful Linux litigation, and take it private.

The SCO Group's board has approved the transaction, and the company should exit bankruptcy "in the coming year," the company said. And SNCP's reorganization plan "will also enable the company to see SCO's legal claims through to their full conclusion," it said.

The SCO Group sells a version of Unix that never achieved the popularity of rival products from companies such as IBM or Sun Microsystems, but it's better known in recent years for its ill-fated legal action that asserted Linux infringed its Unix intellectual property. The case largely fell apart when a court found that Novell still owned the Unix copyright.

Despite an attempt to begin a new line of mobile-computing software called Me, the company's revenue dropped steadily from $79 million in fiscal 2003 to $22 million in fiscal 2007, during which the company reported a loss of $6.8 million. And last week, the company announced layoffs of 30 employees from a staff numbering about 115.

Stephen Norris, managing partner of the firm, though, was bullish on the Lindon, Utah-based company's prospects.

"We saw a tremendous investment opportunity in SCO and its vast range of products and services, including many new innovations ready or soon to be ready to be released into the marketplace," said. "We expect to quickly develop these opportunities, and to stand behind SCO's existing base of customers and partners."

It's not clear how much the investors will have to pay to acquire their controlling interest and to take SCO private. News of the investment sent SCO's shares, traded over the counter since its delisting from Nasdaq in 2007, up 3 cents per share to 9 cents, giving the company a market capitalization of about $2 million.

The companies didn't disclose who the Middle Eastern partners are, but Norris' biography indicates he's worked with some on more than one occasion. He "acted as a principal financial advisor to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud of Kingdom Holding Company in structuring and negotiating the re-capitalization of Citibank" and worked on "the offer by a major Saudi Arabian investment firm for Lamborghini in Italy."

In October, The SCO Group had disclosed a plan to sell its Unix assets to New York Capital Management for up to $36 million. It appears now that the Unix assets will remain with SCO.

"This significant financial backing is positive news for SCO's customers, partners and resellers who continue to request upgrades and rely upon SCO's Unix services to drive their business forward," said Jeff Hunsaker, The SCO Group's president and chief operating officer, in a statement.

Investing in SCO has proven difficult. One fund, BayStar Capital Management, invested $50 million in 2003, but unwound the deal in 2004 after much bickering.

Update 12:46 p.m. PT: I added more information on The SCO Group's legal case and its market capitalization.

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac to ship in second quarter 2008 - Adobe previously said "early 2008," (http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9783661-39.html) but now it's second quarter. Not a big deal since Mac folks get iPhoto. Why bother offering pre-order months early? Answer: to make it not look like a delay.
• More Canon 5D Mark II Rumors | Photography Bay - Some guy's Canon rep said to expect an announcement of the new low-end full-frame camera at PMA (which starts January 31, but Canon's announcement looks like January 24).
• Tighter intellectual property restirctions at iStockphoto.com - iStockphoto is tightening restrictions on permissible photos; Previously, no face, no model release required. Now, if subject could recognize him- or herself, needs a release. Also out: recognizable cars, cruise ships.
• SimCity Source Code under GPL - The original SimCity is now under GPL, called Micropolis for legal reasons and refurbished somewhat.
• Mainframe: Will Microsoft Windows be next on System z? - Back in the 1994, IBM figured out how to boot Windows on a mainframe, but legal machinations between IBM, Microsoft, and Bristol Technologies killed it. "We'll never see a day when Windows will run natively on the mainframe."
• The Online Photographer: The Arc of a Forum Exchange - An amusing parody of a typical forum. Look for the hidden original definition (now probably obsolete mostly) of a prime lens.
• Peachpit: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Resource Center - A big collection of book chapter excerpts, videos, and other useful Lightroom training material.
• Holy moly--Nikon D3 SLRs spotted on the NFL sidelines - Canon has such a lock on pro sports photography that it's news even if just a handful of Nikons are in use.
• Shortcuts You Must Memorize - Inside Lightroom - I agree--this is a great list of very useful Lightroom keyboard shortcuts.
• PDF: Now an ISO Standard - Let's hope this will make "export to PDF" more common. It really is a useful format, despite its hassles and annoyances.

Eastman Kodak will receive royalties from Matsushita Electric Industrial through a settlement of a July patent infringement suit, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.

On December 21, Kodak settled suits with Matsushita, better known in the United States by its Panasonic brand, and with a Matsushita subsidiary, Victor Company of Japan (JVC).

Under terms of the settlements, the companies signed cross-licensing agreements granting each company access to the others' patents, Kodak said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Both settlements are "royalty-bearing to Kodak," the company said.

Mark Webbink, who retired in August as a senior attorney for Linux seller Red Hat, has joined the board of the Software Freedom Law Center, the group said Wednesday.

Mark Webbink

(Credit: Red Hat)

The SFLC provides free legal help to free and open-source programming projects--for example filing a copyright infringement lawsuit on behalf of BusyBox programmers against Monsoon Multimedia.

Webbink was Red Hat's general counsel from 2000 until 2004, when the company hired Michael Cunningham for the role and Webbink took over matters concerning open-source software and intellectual property until his retirement. In that role, he's had to reckon with subjects including the arrival of the new General Public License (GPL) version 3, the SCO Group's Linux litigation and Red Hat's response, and Microsoft's saber-rattling over patents.

Webbink is also a senior lecturing fellow with the Duke University School of Law.