The non-profit group that owns rights to much of the Linux operating system says it will seek to undermine a controversial deal between Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. through a new software licensing agreement to be unveiled on Wednesday.
he two companies announced a business partnership in November that included a cross-patent protection agreement that some critics say implies Microsoft has legal rights to Linux, the cooperatively developed software that is gaining ground with corporate users.
"We need to make sure such deals don't make a mockery of the goals of free software," Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, said in an interview with Reuters late on Monday.