Microsoft-Canonical agreement not to be

In connection with recent agreements between Microsoft and various Linux vendors (Novell, Xandros, Linspire), rumors have emerged that a similar agreement will be signed with Canonical, the developer of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth, director of Canonical, said in his blog that there would be no such agreement.



Shuttleworth wrote that Canonical refused to negotiate with Microsoft about agreements that provide Ubuntu users with legal protection related to "undefined patents." The explanation was as follows:

Claims of infringement of patent infringements have no weight. We do not think that they are legally binding, and they do not encourage us to work with Microsoft on various wonderful things that we could do together.

Shuttleworth also added that these patent agreements create a false sense of security and are not able to effectively protect users from patent lawsuits filed by a large company like Microsoft.