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Who Ordered the Linux, Extra DRM?

Jun 18, 2008  By Justin Ryan

DRM — digital rights management — isn't something one usually associates with Linux, given the freely available nature of the source code for the vast majority of Linux applications. Apparently someone wants it, though, as Aladdin Knowledge Systems has just announced the latest version of their HASP SRM package, complete with Linux support.

Presumably the target audience for this sort of thing is the hard-line corporate type, the ones like Nokia who want a piece of the Linux pie without walking the Linux path. We're guessing that whatever ends up locked up in Aladdin's cave will have to be pretty attractive to get hard-core Linux users to load anything vaguely resembling the despised digital "protections" anywhere near their free, and squeaky clean, systems.

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Justin Ryan is a Contributing Editor for Linux Journal.

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Justin, I can put your mind

Jeremy Soref, Sr. Product Manager, Aladdin Knowledge Systems's picture
Submitted by Jeremy Soref, Sr. Product Manager, Aladdin Knowledge Systems (not verified) on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 07:27.

Justin, I can put your mind at ease. Most of our customers asking for Linux support are not hard-line corporate types. The vast majority are software publishers who want to offer their customers - primarily small and medium-size businesses - a choice in operating systems. (A survey we conducted a while back indicated that nearly 20% of independent software vendors responding offered Linux applications alongside other operating systems.)

To ensure Linux remains an attractive option, it's critical that there's also a wide range of applications out there that run under operating systems such as Linux. One way of doing this is through open source. Another way is to allow software developers and publishers to profit from their investments in building those applications - particularly high-value business applications running on Linux servers. I think we would both like to see the continued availability of multiple options for operating system platforms. Wouldn't you agree that there's more than one path toward that goal?