Executive moves: Martin Buckley quits Novell over "certain principles"
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| Positive changes? Well, apparently not from Martin's perspective. You don't
| quit a company after eight and a half years over "certain principles" unless
| things are really bad. I never knew Martin during my time at Novell but he
| was/is well-respected. His departure doesn't inspire confidence.
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http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9889557-16.html
Days ago:
MIX - Novell's de Icaza criticizes Microsoft patent deal
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| Open-source pioneer and Novell Vice President Miguel de Icaza Thursday for
| the first time publicly slammed his company's cross-patent licensing
| agreement with Microsoft as he defended himself against lack of patent
| protection for third parties that distribute his company's Moonlight project,
| which ports Microsoft's Silverlight technology to Linux.
|
| Speaking on a panel at the MIX 08 conference in Las Vegas, de Icaza said that
| Novell has done the best it could to balance open-source interests with
| patent indemnification. However, if he had his way, the company would have
| remained strictly open source and not gotten into bed with Microsoft. Novell
| entered into a controversial multimillion dollar cross-patent licensing and
| interoperability deal with Microsoft in November 2006.
|
| "I'm not happy about the fact that such an agreement was made, but [the
| decision] was above my pay grade; I think we should have stayed with the
| open-source community," de Icaza said. He was speaking on a panel that also
| included representatives from Microsoft and open-source companies Mozilla and
| Zend.
|
| [...]
|
| De Icaza shot back that it was "unfair" of Schroepfer to paint Novell as the
| only company protected by patent covenants, as many companies have signed
| licensing agreements not only with Microsoft, but also with other companies
| such as IBM that have a large patent portfolio.
|
| [...]
|
| The choice has drawn ire from open-source diehards who were displeased with
| Novell’s decision to sign a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft in the
| first place. A Web site called “Boycott Novell” decried Moonlight as a
| Microsoft “pet project” and criticized the company’s decision not to port
| Silverlight to Linux itself.
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http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/03/06/mix-novells-de-icaza-criticizes-microsoft-patent-deal
Blog: Is Microsoft really lending Linux a helping hand?
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| Microsoft's patent pledge is perhaps more worrying. It has promised not to
| assert patent claims against developers working on open-source projects, but
| the cover does not apply to commercial distributors of those projects, so
| distributors like Red Hat are still very much at threat. In broader terms, it
| undermines one of the basic tenants of open-source -- that the user can,
| within the licence requirements, do whatever they like with the software --
| since the user is only free from the threat of patent claims until they start
| charging money.
|
| Ultimately, Microsoft's sincerity is in question, with many speculating that
| its true motives remain hidden. If Microsoft is genuine, only consistent good
| deeds will counter its history and silence the critics.
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http://www.pcauthority.com.au/news.aspx?CIaNID=71576
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