Something baffling about some FOSS supporters is their implicit acknowledgement of how fragile FOSS is as a business model. As seen in policy reform proposals and court filings, the way FOSS wants American law to accommodate FOSS development, you get the impression the movement is walking on egg-shells. Where FOSS has been better spoken for, as an activity that must fall under the law and face its compliance costs like everybody else, even FOSS skeptics, have been complimenting.

Now, with the challenge from Oracle, and the new Microsoft-Novell partnership, the super star of FOSS companies, Red Hat, proves that some rough handling (through market competiton) is better than over-doting (by championing vague notions of freedom) for a FOSS company to shape up and grow up.

CNet does an excellent job of reporting:

Faced with new competitive challenges from Novell, Microsoft and Oracle, Linux seller Red Hat has begun promising protection against IP lawsuits.

The leading Linux seller quietly slipped the indemnification provision into a question-and-answer page on their Web site after Novell and Microsoft announced a technical and patent partnership on Thursday.

"As with any indemnification provision, if (a customer) were to get sued for IP infringement over code they got from us, the provision of the indemnification language kicks in. ..we step into their shoes" to handle the legal attack, said Mark Webbink, Red Hat's deputy general counsel.

Now, Red Hat should figure out why it got left outside the Microsoft-Novell tent.