The AP reports that Microsoft will license instant messaging, and digital media code to San Diego-based Linspire. Linspire is a desktop Linux maker.
The plan is that Linspire will license code related to VoIP, Windows Media files. This will allow its users to voice-chat with Windows Live Messenger buddies, watch Windows Media video and audio files on open-source media players. It will also license some code related to TrueType to give its users access to some popular fonts. In exchange, Linspire will set MSN as the default search engine. And it will work with Novell and Microsoft to create ways to let Microsoft Office and Open Office to more easily share documents. Read the Network World article.
Interestingly enough, AP reports, Linspire’s CEO, Kevin Carmony, is known as one of the most outspoken anti-Microsoft voices in the open-source crowd. Carmony was known to remark that the motivation for using his company’s operating system was that it wasn’t Windows. Indeed, the company originally called itself Lindows, which sparked a trademark infringement battle, that ultimately ended when Linspire took $20 million from Microsoft to change its name.
In addition to making friends with the former enemy – which may anger the Linux die-hard crowd, but isn’t necessarily an evil action on its own, Linspire gets a whole lot of public visibility from this agreement. Like this blog post.
