I need an Interpretation of an article, Please!

[cousinlucky]

My weekly Linuxjournal was Emailed to me today; and the things beyond my limited computer comprehension I usual just let go. However this article by Nicholas Petreley intrigues me. Can someone please explain this to me? Thanks!

http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000142

[ImNeat]

It seems to me that Microsoft is using some sort of DRM technology to protect its Office file formats (e.g. .doc and .xls). This would make it so no other office software (like OpenOffice) could read/write/execute its files unless they pay MS royalties to use its proprietary file formats.

It looks like Microsoft will allow Novell, and only Novell, to read/write/execute these files legally because of the deal between the two of them.

That's my take on it.

[bigtomrodney]

I'd have to disagree with that interpretation, but only because the article seems a bit off the mark. As much as I abhor Trusted Computing and there is every potential for it to be used in some very bad ways that is not the application of it. It will just as much lock out other MS Office users, the idea is like a hardware encryption whereby only your machine can open your documents.

I'd be very wary of any comments on the Microsoft/Novell deal. I haven't made any judgement on it, and if I could offer one piece of advice it would be to do the same. Unfortunately because there are a lot of people who are unhappy or have a distrust - which is fine - that there is a lot of speculation on all of the evils. All I can say is that I'll believe it when I see it, and believe me I won't be at all happy if any of what I have heard is true.

The problem is that it is all speculation, and no amount of speculation will make fact. My biggest concern is that all of the mistrust generated from this deal may lead to splits in the OSS community. The last thing we need is another Unix war. Let's remember that's how Microsoft got where it is today, slipping in the backdoor at a cheaper price while every flavour of Unix was fighting it out.

[Dapper Dan]

I'm glad to see the Linux community has this back on the table for discussion. Ross Anderson went into great detail about all this back in 2003...
Link

[Vergil83]

bigtomrodney is correct that so much about the Novell - MS deal is speculation. However, Eben Moglen, did get to look at it (I assume he had to sign NDAs) and said when GPL3 comes it, the deal will violate it.
http://money.cnn.com/blogs/legalpad/...60365189479898

My biggest concern is that all of the mistrust generated from this deal may lead to splits in the OSS community.

this is my biggest concern and I think this is exactly why MS did it. MS is not going to sue "linux" (the kenrel, various apps, etc...) because IBM has a ton of patents too that MS is violating. MS would get countered sue. 10 years later they would reach an agreement and thousands of lawyers will be very rich.

[Vergil83]

and here are a couple old threads we talked about trusted computing (to add to what Dapper Dan linked to)
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...racy-nuts.html
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...computing.html