Carmony

Microsoft and Linspire announced a business collaboration and patent agreement this morning, following the similar deals Microsoft has made with two other Linux vendors, Novell and Xandros. See this story for more details.

Linspire licensed a number of Microsoft technologies, seeking to boost the capabilities of its PC Linux distribution. It also agreed to make Microsoft's Live Search the Linspire default, replacing Google. And Microsoft agreed not to pursue Linspire customers for patent infringement over their use of the operating system -- echoing the most controversial aspects of the Novell and Xandros agreements.

The latest agreement is in sharp contrast to the era, a few years ago, when Linspire (then known as Lindows) and Microsoft were engaged in a legal battle over the Windows trademark. Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony downplays that history now, but at the time, the case had major implications. Microsoft was the one that filed suit, but it ended up paying $20 million in 2004 to settle the case after Lindows gained some legal traction in its effort to invalidate the Windows trademark.

Via phone, here's what Carmony said about the new agreement:

On why Linspire made the deal: "We've got agreements and interoperability collaboration going on with so many companies, yet one of the most important ones, Microsoft, we really didn't have that with. So I reached out to them last year and they were very open to discussing it. ... I'm happy that there is an underlying incentive for Microsoft to help me build a better Linux. And my definition of a better Linux is a Linux that has more capabilities."

On the history between the companies: "Obviously, if you trace the history of any companies that compete against each other, they're going to have issues where they have disagreements and they go to battle a little bit, and then they'll have issues where they're in great agreement, and they cooperate and work together. That's going to continue with us and Microsoft. I'm sure we'll have things that we agree on and things that we disagree on."

On the impact of the Microsoft-Novell deal: "Previous to that, some people may have felt like Microsoft's goal was to try to kill Linux. ... With the Novell announcement, some people saw that as bad news, but I saw it as good news. ... Microsoft realizes some percentage of people are going to choose Linux."

On the patent protections: "From the patent perspective, we definitely have enterprise customers that respect IP, they respect patents. They're saying, 'Hey, Microsoft has a gazillion patents. It's very likely some of these could certainly be in Linux.' It's not my role to play judge and jury if that's the case. My role is to say, 'Look, if (patent protection) is something you want, I'm happy to put that on the store shelf, and make that an option for you to get.' "

On the relationship between Linux and the industry: "Underlying all of this is a sentiment of cooperation. Let's expand the ecosystem. I don't think for Linux to succeed, Microsoft needs to die. I've never felt that way. Obviously some people in the open source and Linux community, I think they do have that sentiment. I completely disagree with that. There's no way Linux can do everything it needs to do by itself. We need Intel. We need IBM. We need Microsoft. We need Novell. We need ATI. We need all these companies to kind of cooperate."

On the potential reaction to the patent agreement: "I know I'm probably going to take some hits when we announce this, but I'm OK with that. For me, I'm saying it's time to lay the sword down, guys. Microsoft is a huge player in this ecosystem. We've got to find a way to work with these guys. I can tell you, I've been very pleased with the reception that Microsoft has given us. And I know people may be skeptical of that. But I'm telling you, I think they genuinely realize, hey, not everybody in the world is going to choose Windows."

On the feelings of Michael Robertson, Linspire's chairman and largest shareholder, who led the legal battle against Microsoft when he was the Lindows chief executive: "He definitely has been kept apprised of what we're doing, and he's like, 'Yep, sounds like this agreement makes sense, given where we are in the industry today and what we want to achieve.' "