Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Novell-Microsoft: What They Aren't Telling You
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Today Novell and Microsoft announced a partnership in which Microsoft
> | has made some unlikely-seeming promises regarding Linux. What aren't
> | they telling you? First, you can be sure that Microsoft's not out to
> | help a competitor. This announcement paves the way for Microsoft to
> | implement significant control over commercial customer's use of Free
> | Software. And it has significant negative implications for Open Source
> | in general.
> |
> | There are two significant announcements. First, that Novell and
> | Microsoft are entering into a patent cross-license, and second, that
> | Microsoft is promising not to assert its patents against individual
> | non-commercial developers. The bad part is that this sets Mirosoft up to
> | assert its patents against all commercial Open Source users. There are
> | also some little bonuses for Microsoft, like Novell will help Microsoft
> | turn back the Open Document Format and substitute something Microsoft
> | controls.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | SCO's case is foundering, so here's Microsoft's next scheme to charge a
> | royalty to users of Linux, and to make Novell into the next SCO.
> | Groklaw, a widely-respected journal of technology law, probably said it
> | best with their headline on this story: Novell Sells Out.
> |
> | This entire agreement hinges around software patenting - monopolies on
> | ideas that are burying the software industry in litigation - rather
> | than innovation. If we've learned one thing from the rapid rise of
> | Open Source, it's that intellectual property protection - the thing
> | that Open Source dispenses with - actually impedes innovation. And
> | the Novell-Microsoft agremeent stands as an additional impediment.
> `----
>
> http://technocrat.net/d/2006/11/2/9945
>
> This is an excellent writeup.
>
> I have noticed an unusual thread on the Opensuse mailing list this
> morning. People say farewell to Novell.
I can't see Novell being that stupid again. They have been kicked in the
goolies by MS before, I can't believe that they would sign up to hand feed
the Lion a second time unless it was very well controlled.
Particularly as there is very little in what has been said so far for
Novell, Novell are growing at a good rate anyway, making major inroads into
both the server and desktop arenas, simply because their product is so damn
good. It is MS's job to better interface with the available network
systems, it isn't hard, they could read the code to see how it's done if
they like. Novell don't gain much by doing the job for them. There must be
more to this that is to Novell's benefit because otherwise what will they
really gain? MS on the other hand could gain a great deal, the balance is
too far wrong, Novell wouldn't have signed something so imbalanced.
At least, I hope they wouldn't. I'm tempted to say 'If they have...',
I don't believe this for a moment, but someone might say 'Oracle kicked
Redhat's arse the biggest of the lot in the server arena', MS are posing to
kick Novell's arse, heading towards being the biggest on the servers and on
the desktop', would make you wonder if they hadn't been secret meetings to
decide the best way to kick Linux off the field.
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