Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> Why Is Dell Buying SLES certificates from Microsoft, Not Novell?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | So, is it possible Microsoft just wants to get out of the SLES
> | certificates business quick, most specifically before GPLv3 is final?
> `----
MS have an overstock of unsold certificates, and they're dumping them
while they still can. For those who still don't understand exactly what
these "certificates" are, here's a nice summary:
"These certificates entitle companies to run virtualised Windows on Suse
Linux Enterprise Server, or virtualised SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on
top of Windows. The certificates were part of an upfront payment to
Novell of $240 million. Microsoft can use, resell, or distribute them
over the term of the agreement. The certificates can then be used to
redeem single or multi-year subscriptions for SLES support from Novell."
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1254016,00.html
What I found more interesting was the video clip of the Think Tank
conference. Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab director, Sam Ramji, is
asked several times by members of the audience to clarify precisely
*what* IP Microsoft's thinks Linux infringes, and each time he avoids
the question, only going as far as hinting about "cloning issues". It's
the most obvious case of bullshit I've ever heard.
http://thinktank.olliancegroup.com/content/view/35/1/
Erik will be disappointed to note that contrary to his claims, according
to Ramji Microsoft *has* in fact used it's patents *offensively* twice
before, although Ramji did not elucidate any further.
I was also intrigued to discover that, according to Novell's Solutions
Manager - Justin Steinman, Novell consulted with the Open Source
Community before signing off on the Microsoft pact. Problem is, the
segment of the "Open Source Community" that Novell "consulted" with was
their own employees, members of their own advisory committee,
specifically people like their CTO for Open Source - Nat Friedman, and
their VP of Developer Platform - Miguel de Icaza. To say that this was a
consultation with "all the Open Source leaders" is a bit misleading, to
say the least. He even went as far as citing Jeremy Allison's support
for the deal, which is quite ironic, since Allison subsequently
*resigned* from Novell "due to the Microsoft/Novell patent agreement"
and because "even if it does not violate the letter of the licence it
violates the intent of the GPL licence the Samba code is released under".
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061221081000710
When asked directly "what's in it for Novell", Steinman made it very
clear that Novell's primary motivation was getting a leg up over Red
Hat, by "differentiating" Novell's Linux from theirs by making SuSE
"work better with Windows" than Red Hat's offerings. He then goes on to
cite the specific examples of virtualisation, and OOXML compatibility,
and how they managed to get a foothold in Walmart off Microsoft's back.
I think it's clearer than ever that SuSE is simply "Microsoft Linux"
with proprietary extensions, ultimately deigned to bastardise Linux into
some grotesque proprietary monster, and poison the FOSS Well.
I was also rather disturbed to hear that Ramji had discussed with Mike
Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, the
possibility of tainting Eclipse with Microsoft's .NET technology,
presumably to mutate Linux into the same bloated unstable mess that
Windows is now, and try to diminish Linux's technical advantages.
He also waxed lyrical about Microsoft's SOAP based WS Management, and
about how it really was open and free, honest, even going as far as to
say that everyone is free to use this technology and "we'll never call
you, or bug you, or worry about anything".
Promise?
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| 'Also, no one calls it PCI-X even though that's the "official "
| shortening of the much more commonly used "PCI Express".'
| - Hardon Quirk, COLA's resident "genius".
`----
Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) on sky, running kernel 2.6.20-1.2312.fc5
23:47:43 up 28 days, 21:19, 2 users, load average: 0.53, 0.30, 0.29
|
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