Novell SA restructures, retrenches
,----[ Quote ]
| Naidoo reveals the local workforce was required to re-apply for new positions
| under its revamped structure. This process saw “about 20%” of its old
| workforce retrenched.
`----
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/business/2008/0801141040.asp?O=FPTOP&S=Software&A=SFT
Good new quote here:
"The years of anti-software-patent campaigning taught us that programming
doesn't solve all problems. Companies like Microsoft have realised that
politics and advertising are two of the free software community's weak spots.
They can't tackle us in terms of producing good software, so they're tackling
us where we are weak. We have to beef up our work on public policy and
awareness."
http://lwn.net/Articles/264635/
Recent:
linux.conf.au: What is Novell doing here?
,----[ Quote
| I also raised the issue of Novell employees like Miguel de Icaza and Nat
| Friedman who appear to be pushing further and further to duplicate
| technologies which Microsoft has developed and offering totally unconvincing
| explanations as to why they are doing so.
|
| [...]
|
| These arguments notwithstanding, it is a fact that overlooking what Novell
| has done tends to dilute the whole message of FOSS. Novell, obviously, is
| hoping that, as public memory is woefully short, it will be able to wriggle
| its way back into the community. Providing such leeway is, in my opinion, a
| big mistake.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16042/1090/
LaSala [Leaves Novell,] Named Discovery General Counsel
,----[ Quote ]
| Most recently, LaSala served as senior vice president, general counsel and
| secretary for Novell, where he served as a member of Novell’s executive
| leadership team and had responsibility for all legal matters affecting Novell
| on a worldwide basis, including corporate governance, intellectual property,
| contract management, licensing, anti-piracy, regulatory compliance, mergers
| and acquisitions, and litigation. LaSala joined Novell in 2001 when the
| company acquired Cambridge Technology Partners, where he served as senior
| vice president, general counsel and secretary since 2000.
`----
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6517802.html?industryid=47200
Related:
Novell congratulates itself for snogging Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Novell wants you to know that selling its soul to Steve Ballmer was a really
| good idea.
|
| On the last day of 2007, two separate Novell execs tossed up blog posts
| congratulating themselves for agreeing to that "interoperability partnership"
| with Microsoft, a year-old deal intent on forcing an unholy relationship
| between Linux and Windows.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/03/linux_pats_self_on_back/
Microsoft Making Millions Off Novell Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Evidence is emerging that Microsoft is making money, lots of it, from
| selling 'certificates' for Novell's SUSE Linux. Microsoft gained the right to
| distribute the certificates a little more than a year ago under a marketing
| and technical alliance with Novell.
|
| [...]
|
| So, while Linux -- free software that competes with Windows -- may still be
| a "cancer" for Microsoft, the company has found a way to profit from it.
| That's a good trick . . . perhaps Microsoft should next enter the
| pharmaceutical market?
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/01/microsoft_makin.html
,----[ Quote ]
| [Allison: ] "Yes, that's true, actually. I mean I have had people come
| up to me and essentially off the record admit that they had been
| threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had
| essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free
| software that they were using [...] But they're not telling anyone
| about it. They're completely doing it off the record."
`----
http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/02/11/1443211.shtml
Novell: 'No One Can Stop Us From Selling Linux'
,----[ Quote ]
| It was reported that those changes would preclude the inclusion of Linux in
| third party distribution deals such as the one Novell recently signed with
| Microsoft and "ban" Novell from selling future versions of Linux.
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197003452&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
Why is there no Open Source SLES ?
,----[ Quote ]
| One of them is that the SLES community is much smaller and more aimed at
| proprietary software. Novell itself is promoting Mixed Source and promotes
| its own proprietary software on top of SLES (also see OES). This obviously
| scares part of the community away. The deal with Microsoft obviously does as
| well. As a result Novell is big within Enterprises with little community
| people, and these are not the kind of people that would spend their free time
| rebuilding packages and do QA.
|
| Another reason is that Novell is not in favor of such a project (even though
| people from within Novell _and_ people in the SLES community disagree with
| management) because it fears it will take away some of the profit and Novell
| made a big risk by taking the Linux route, they cannot afford to make it
| fail.
`----
http://dag.wieers.com/blog/content/why-is-there-no-open-source-sles
Is it Microsoft + Novell or Microsoft vs. Novell?
,----[ Quote ]
| Actually, this is very surprising. I've started to notice a trend in all the
| announcements the two companies have made over the past year: Novell stresses
| interoperability while Microsoft beats its drum on patent protection.
|
| [...]
|
| I wonder how long Microsoft will continue its efforts to try to cast the deal
| as about IP. It's not for Novell, it seems to me now. Microsoft did the deal
| to hurt Linux - there's no other explanation for it. It has no fiduciary duty
| to enable a competitor (unless its a weaker competitor against the Linux
| market leader, Red Hat). It has a fiduciary duty to kill that competitor.
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9813681-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Novell uses Microsoft FUD to market itself
,----[ Quote ]
| That these claims also could be taken to mean that Novell is developing a
| non-standard Linux, one that is skewed only towards working with Windows,
| appears to have escaped Novell.
|
| In other words, Novell has an "in" with Microsoft which Red Hat does not;
| Utah and Redmond are in bed together and Red Hat is an intruder.
`----
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/14695/1091/
|
|
