Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says Red Hat
Linux users are violating the firm's intellectual property and will
have to compensate Microsoft as a result.
At a London Microsoft event last week, Ballmer told the
audience, "Red Hat users will have to eventually compensate
us."
Ballmer had praised Linux distributor
Novell for making a deal with Microsoft over intellectual
property, which meant its users would not be subject to any
intellectual property violation claims by Microsoft, but singled
out Red Hat users for being open to any claim.
In the past,
Ballmer has said the Linux operating system violates certain
Microsoft patents, but he has not been specific on which areas,
and at the London event the audience weren't any wiser either.
Ballmer said that when Microsoft had been found on the wrong
side of patent law, the firm had written out big cheques as a
result, and the Linux community should be subject to the same
rules.
He did not say when Microsoft was going to move against the Red
Hat Linux community and its end-users.
View a video of Steve Ballmer's presentation and the Q&A which
contains his Red Hat remarks >>