It looks like Red Hat isn’t going to allow Microsoft to bully them into paying for Patent Protection. Microsoft has stated that linux is infringing on multiple patents and intellectual property. Red Hat provides an enterprise Linux operating system, when you’re more or less purchasing continual and automatic updates and the option for Technical Support from RedHat directly. Red Hat previously provided their Variant of Linux for free, and then discontinued it. They now provide a free desktop version called Fedora there are also other variants of Fedora like CentOS which is more of an enterprise operating system very much like Red Hat but not affiliated with Red Hat directly.
Red Hat Vows To Stand Up To Patent Intimidation – mrcgran writes “Eweek is reporting on Red Hat’s assurances that can continue to deploy Linux without fear of legal retribution from Microsoft. This, despite the increasingly vocal threats emanating from Redmond. ‘In a scathing response to Ballmer’s remarks, Red Hat’s IP team said the reality is that the community development approach of free and open-source code represents a healthy development paradigm, which, when viewed from the perspective of pending lawsuits related to intellectual property, is at least as safe as proprietary software. “We are also aware of no patent lawsuit against Linux. Ever. Anywhere,” the team said in a blog posting.'”Read more of this story at Slashdot.