'Linux violates Microsoft's copyright'

US software executive chief executive Steve Ballmer has sparked a major controversy by insisting they sign a "historic agreement" with Novell to get a certain amount of compensation.

Ballmer announced that the Linux operating system had " used Microsoft's intellectual property rights ", so the company wanted to " collect money for shareholders ". Under a contract with Novell earlier this month, Microsoft will invest $ 440 million to improve the technology to increase compatibility between Linux and Windows.

However, the notable point in the agreement is that Novell accepted a 40 million USD payment for Microsoft. In return, the corporation based in Redmond, Washington (USA) will not sue SuSE Linux users and open source developers for copyright infringement later.

This commitment is criticized by many companies and open source organizations. Sun's chief executive Jonathan Schwartz said such a deal is no different from assuming Novell violated intellectual property rights.

Microsoft's leadership for a month still refused to reveal whether they considered Linux violated. Ballmer was the first to break this silence when he explained clearly: " Novell pays us a small amount of money to be allowed to tell customers that anyone who uses SuSE Linux is guaranteed benefits. Microsoft will implement the same agreement with Red Hat and other Linux distributors, not just SuSE Linux "

However, Ballmer's statement was not well received. " In his words, there is still shyness and uncertainty. If he wants to, he just sues and sees if the customers are satisfied with the chaos, " Pamela Jones, owner of the blog. Groklaw.net, commented.