Novell-Microsoft: What They Aren't Telling You
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| 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.
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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.
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