The hype around Microsoft’s recent claims that Linux and, generally speaking, the open source community have infringed Redmond-crafted IP (intellectual property) is not going to calm down for a long time.

It’s actually what was bound to happen: when Microsoft signed that pesky interoperability agreement last November with Novell, it wasn’t about interoperability after all. At surface, it was simply about bridging operating systems for improved usability (or rather, deep under the polite terms and conditions, bridging patents to get Microsoft closer to claiming parts of the Linux kernel).

During the conference that followed the Novell-MS agreement there was a lot of talk about interoperability, working together, mutual-admiration banter and back-slapping, with Steve Ballmer conceding that Linux has in fact become a very important part of the technology landscape and has been embraced by Microsoft Windows customers worldwide…

Kevin Harmony, president of Linspire, has had since then a prophetical and skeptical view of Microsoft’s actions, considering them as too cunning (and he was right, eventually). At that time, he said that: “given their history, I'm understandably very skeptical that Microsoft sincerely wants to do much here. They'll do a few inconsequential things, again, to give the impression they're trying to interoperate, but they'll continue to protect the turf that matters most to them; their staggeringly profitable Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office dominions.”

What are now the options of the open source community, faced with the Redmond-patents threat?

Well, first of all, the open sourcers should simply ignore what Microsoft is doing and go on with their lives. No one says it will be easy (after all, we’re talking about a behemoth with an army of lawyers), but giving the matter more importance than it deserves is simply a waste of time. However, this would most certainly affect publicly-traded companies that sell and operate Linux distributions, which are not yet ready (financially speaking) to deal with a Kafkian-like legal battle spread over years.

These companies have an obligation to their shareholders to operate within the law, and if Linux is to be embraced by mainstream enterprises, it needs to come with clean IP.