Linspire, the company Microsoft sued a few years ago for using the "Lindows" name, has joined Novell/Suse and Xandros in Microsoft's "IP Protection" clause, (according to Microsoft) saving its customers from potential Microsoft patent-infringement lawsuits.
Sources: Mary Joe Foley adds some details about the agreement
As long as Microsoft refuses to show proof for its claim that Linux and open-source software violates 235 of Microsoft’s patents, nobody really believes their statement. On the other hand, the more Linux distro vendors join the "IP Protection" club, the more fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) Microsoft is creating that there really is something going on. Will Red Hat be the next company to seek "IP protection" or is Microsoft trying to align all Linux players against Red Hat ?
Meanwhile, Microsoft recruited Tom Hanrahan, previously director of engineering at the Linux Foundation. He will become director of Linux Interoperability, and will make sure Windows and SuSE Linux work well in virtualization, directory and identity integration (Active Directory and eDirectory), and on systems management. Is this the foreplay to the acquisition of Novell ?
At their IT Forum in Edinburgh, Forrester CEO George Colony told lots of European chief information officers, IT directors and senior IT managers that the name "IT" should be changed to "business technology", or "BT", as technology is now vital for running a business. Colony asked chief executives to do a "scream test" in their company: seeing how long it takes before employees begin to scream when you pull the technology plug. Not because they can no longer access "Second Life" or their personal email, but because the company is loosing money...
Colony expects a transition from information technology to business technology, and advises CEOs and corporate boards to learn more about this. Of course, they should not really understand what SOA, CRM, ERP, ... is, but how this "business technology" can generate revenue for the business.
Not so long ago, HP came up with similar conclusions about this paradigm shift, probably inspired by its acquisition of the excellent products of Mercury and Systinet.
More info about Forrester's IT Forum at Computerworld UK. Colony wrote his ideas down last August in this Forrester report.