After the recent interoperability frenzy started by Microsoft, which engulfed the likes of Novell, Xandros or Linspire, many have asked how much is going to take the Redmond giant to convince the remaining important Linux vendors, Canonical and Red Hat, to join its boat.

However, according to Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and the main figure behind Ubuntu’s success on the market (including the breakthrough agreement with Dell to pre-install the open source OS on Texas-giant’s machines), there is no intention of having similar patent-agreements with Microsoft, at least not in the near future.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth in a blog posting on Saturday said the company has declined to talk to Microsoft about any agreement that provides legal protection to Ubuntu users related to “unspecified patents.”

“Allegations of ‘infringement of unspecified patents’ carry no weight whatsoever. We don’t think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together,” he wrote. Shuttleworth said these patent agreements create “a false sense of security” and do not effectively protect the user from a patent suit from a big company like Microsoft.

He also ditched the idea that somewhere in the future Microsoft’s claims that the Linux kernel infringes Redmond’s IP will actually find a clear expression under the form of a patent suit.

“I don’t think Microsoft is the real threat, and in fact, I think Microsoft and the Linux community will actually end up fighting on the same side of this issue.

[…] I’m pretty certain that, within a few years, Microsoft themselves will be strong advocates against software patents. Why? Because Microsoft is irrevocably committed to shipping new software every year, and software patents represent landmines in their roadmap which they are going to step on, like it or not, with increasing regularity. They can’t sit on the sidelines of the software game - they actually have to ship new products. And every time they do that, they risk stepping on a patent landmine.

They are a perfect target - they have deep pockets, and they have no option but to negotiate a settlement, or go to court, when confronted with a patent suit.”