Wednesday, 20 June 2007

Ubuntu Linux Founder Slams Reports Linking Him With Microsoft

South African billionaire and founder of Ubuntu Linux, Mark Shuttleworth, has denied news that that his company will be signing a deal with Microsoft to protect itself from any lawsuits to be filed by the company...

South African billionaire and founder of Ubuntu Linux, Mark Shuttleworth, has denied news that that his company will be signing a deal with Microsoft to protect itself from any lawsuits to be filed by the company.

Shuttleworth, in his comments on the website, said that his company is not interested in any deals with Microsoft. He also made it clear that that his company will be following Novell, Linspire and Xandros in signing any deal with Microsoft, the traditional rival of Microsoft.

"For the record, let me state my position, and I think this is also roughly the position of Canonical and the Ubuntu Community Council, though I haven't caucused with the CC on this specifically. We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements", Shuttleworth, the second space tourist wrote on his blog.

Microsoft's most daring challenge yet to the open source community has seen three of the four major Linux operating system providers to sign deals with the Redmond-based company that will see them interact closely with Microsoft in making Linux more compatible with Windows products.