One of the biggest gripes the FOSS community has with respect to Microsoft's business tactics is that its longstanding exclusionary agreements with hardware vendors has stifled genuine competition. This is the very issue of one of two claims Novell will be allowed to press against Microsoft in their anti-trust lawsuit.

According to an Associated Press report, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing Novell's anti-trust suit against Microsoft to continue forward. The court upheld the tossing out of four of the claims, but allowed two to remain intact. The first claim is fairly broad, simply alleging that Microsoft engaged in anti-competitive business practices to "obtain and maintain its monopoly power". The second claim is actually one that most Free and Open Source Software advocates have been pointing out for years.

The second claim allowed to move forward is that "Microsoft engaged in exclusionary agreements with manufacturers that amounted to unreasonable restraint of trade." Thus, it appears that exclusionary agreements are lawful, but only so long as they do not lead to "unreasonable restraint of trade". It is an issue that has been discussed in forums throughout the FOSS community. Many in the community have hoped that just such a case could be pressed against Microsoft.

And now the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agrees that precisely such a case should be allowed to proceed. It remains to be seen whether Novell will be able to convince the court of their position, but they are indeed pressing one of the FOSS community's biggest grievances against Microsoft in court. That may not be enough to get them off the hook with many for the patent deal with Microsoft, but winning the case could go a long way toward helping FOSS make further inroads into the consumer computer market.