Ubuntu chief: Microsoft will lose patent war

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 24 May 2007 at 10:11

On the day that Dell starts to sell PCs pre-loaded with Ubuntu, the Linux company's chief has warned Microsoft that it faces certain defeat if it attempts to start a patent war.

Dell will offer three systems in the US with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-loaded, with prices starting at $599 (around £300). Click here for full details of the distribution.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Ubuntu's founder Mark Shuttleworth has warned Microsoft that attempting to derail Linux with its claims of mass patent infringement are destined to fail. 'Microsoft will lose a patent trench war if they start one, and I'm sure that cooler heads in Redmond know that,' Shuttleworth writes on his blog.

Indeed, Shuttleworth predicts that Microsoft will do an about-face on its patent stance. 'I'm pretty certain that, within a few years, Microsoft themselves will be strong advocates against software patents,' he says. 'Why? Because Microsoft is irrevocably committed to shipping new software every year, and software patents represent landmines in their roadmap which they are going to step on, like it or not, with increasing regularity.

'They can't sit on the sidelines of the software game - they actually have to ship new products. And every time they do that, they risk stepping on a patent landmine.'

Shuttleworth also insists that Microsoft isn't a threat to Linux. 'The real threat to Linux is the same as the real threat to Microsoft, and that is a patent suit from a person or company that is not actually building software, but has filed patents on ideas that the GNU project and Microsoft are equally likely to be implementing.'