Ubuntu Linux founder denies deal with Microsoft

Ubuntu Linux founder denies deal with Microsoft
Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth has slammed rumors that his company will be signing a deal with Microsoft to protect itself from any lawsuits to be filed by the company.

In the comments published on his website, Shuttleworth said that his company is not interested in any deals with Microsoft. He added that the reason for commenting on this topic was to deny media speculation that his company will be following Novell, Linspire and Xandros.

"For the record, let me state my position, and I think this is also roughly the position of Canonical [the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux] and the Ubuntu Community Council, though I haven't caucused with the CC on this specifically. We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements", Shuttleworth wrote on his blog.

Microsoft's most daring challenge yet to the open source community has seen three of the four major Linux operating system providers to sign deals with the Redmond-based company that will see them interact closely with Microsoft in making Linux more compatible with Windows products.

The deal also provides immunity to the company in case Microsoft files any lawsuit over the alleged patent infringement done by Linux. Microsoft has recently claimed that Linux violates as many as 235 Microsoft patents and the company is mulling over filing lawsuits to claim royalty fees.

Linux operating system is slowly becoming popular among computer users and is an open source software, which means that anyone can modify the source code as long as they are going to share it with the Linux community. Last month, Dell announced that it would be offering three computer versions with pre-loaded Linux operating system provided by Ubuntu.