Verily I say unto thee, that Peter Köhlmann spake thusly:
> Well, Roy, *you* (and others) claim that Novell is "damaging linux".
> But so far I have seen nothing at all which would substantiate that
> claim. Just some wild speculations. Frankly, that is not very
> convincing
When Hovsepian signed a pact with Ballmer, it was tantamount to an
admission of guilt over IP infringements, and thus put every other
GNU/Linux distributor in a compromising position, putting pressure
on those distributors to also make that "confession" and join that
protection racket. This further undermined the perceived integrity
of GNU/Linux - forcing companies to re-evaluate their positions on
Open Source - and decide between either abandoning their GNU/Linux
adoption plans, or stick with the "safe" Novell distribution. Pity
it didn't quite work out the way Microsoft hoped but nevertheless,
the intention was malicious, and Novell was complicit. I hope they
enjoy their 30 pieces of silver, and don't spend it all at once.
Then there's the Novell exclusive support for a Windows XEN guest.
I'm sure that's not harmful to other GNU/Linux distos, is it?
Or how about our dear friend Miguel de Icaza, slowly poisoning the
Free Software tree with encumbered .NET toxic waste, presumably so
GNU/Linux will eventually resemble the chaotic and encumbered mess
of spaghetti code that is Windows. I'm sure Microsoft are pleased.
They might eventually have genuine grounds to cry "infringement!".
Microvell now have a department called the "Joint Interoperability
Lab" working to "partition the linux world" into those who support
that "interoperability" (i.e. sign the pact), and those who don't.
But I'm sure they will just give away the results of those efforts
when they finished, just like they did with XEN Windows support. I
mean that /is/ what Open Source Free Software is all about, right?
Maybe someone should call Hovsepian and remind him.
So now they've helped develop Open Source graphics drivers, thanks
to AMD providing some specifications (reserving others under NDA).
How kind of them.
But before I shake Hovsepian's hand, and extent the warm sentiment
of gratitude he expects, perhaps he could answer this question for
me:
Why did Novell risk the entire FOSS movement, and indeed continues
to do so, for the sake of IP infringement allegations that have no
substantive evidence to support them, and in fact where no attempt
has ever been made to substantiate those unfounded claims?
Was it fear of litigation from a company that's stated repeatedly,
and in no uncertain terms, that it does not initiate litigation on
patents?
Or were they afraid that their already flagging business would die
because of competition from Red Hat - so Hovsepian gleefully shook
Ballmer's sweaty hand, and palmed a nice fat bribe?
Yes indeed - thank you Novell.
Thanks for nothing.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| "OOXML is a superb standard"
| - GNU/Linux traitor, Miguel de Icaza.
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Fedora release 7 (Moonshine) on sky, running kernel 2.6.22.1-41.fc7
03:56:50 up 42 days, 2:51, 3 users, load average: 0.10, 0.30, 0.31
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