Enterprise open source Toolkit

Linux vendors hit back at Ballmer's email

Published: 28 Oct 2004 15:54 BST

Indemnification
In the email, Ballmer wrote that "it is rare for open-source software to provide customers with any indemnification at all."

The response from Red Hat and Novell SuSE executives is that both companies provide indemnification against intellectual property.

Red Hat provides a warranty to Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers which guarantees to replace software if there is an intellectual property issue so they can continue using the product without interruption. It also has a fund which assists companies with any legal expenses associated with litigation related to the development of software under an open-source licence.

Novell provides indemnification to customers of versions 8 and 9 of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server. It states that it will pay damages up to $1.5m for an allegedly infringing product. On top of this it will pay legal defence fees.

UNIX Migration
On the subject of migrating enterprise resource planning systems from UNIX to Windows or other platforms, Ballmer highlighted a survey purporting gains in performance by moving to Windows and suggests that Windows outperforms Linux in UNIX migration scenarios.

But Novell claims that an alternative analysis by Flexdata comparing Windows 2003 with SuSE Enterprise Server 9 (SLES9) found that it performed better on the same hardware.

Despite the distinct lack of common ground, there are some points that Microsoft and Novell agree on. At the end of Ballmer's email, he directs customers toward the "Get the Facts" section on the Microsoft Web site. Novell's Hogan agrees that people should read these reports to get a more complete picture.

"Read the complete reports on Microsoft's site, not just Microsoft's chosen sound bites," he says.

Gael Duval, the founder of Mandrakesoft, is less forgiving and sums up Microsoft's email as an attempt to spread confusion.

"We think that Microsoft is trying a new strategy to fight against Linux by spreading much FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about Linux' strongest points."

Novell's full response follows