On Mar 28, 6:48 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> ChangeLog: Reuters gets it wrong, again
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | According to Reuters, the "Linux camp" is trying to "sabotage" the
> | deal between Microsoft and Novell. One wonders if Reuters has a
> | special interest in slinging misinformation about the Linux
> | community, or just deeply misunderstands the Linux community
> | and can't be bothered to get it right.
> `----
> http://community.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/03/27/1544201&from=rss
The biggest problem with the Microsoft/Novell deal is that Novell has
signed
a contract, which appears to impact the code of over 100,000 Linux
contributors
who have no contract with Novell other than that Novell redistributes
their code
under the terms of OSS licenses.
The few leaks that have been released, mostly by Microsoft, seem to
imply that
Novell has essentially accepted Microsoft's claims that they own
everything involving
PC software. Yes, that's an exaggeration, but it does reflect much of
the sentement
among the OSS community.
Clearly, the secret deal wis a PR Coup for Microsoft. They paid $350
million for
the rights to an incredibly small amount of software they could have
gotten for free.
Furthermore, most of the patches and upgrades to that software are
only available
under the terms of the OSS licenses.
What did SUSE/Novell actually own?
YAST - nice admin tool, but not likely to be desired by Microsoft.
XGL - Novell is a contributor, but they don't own XGL, which is an
X.org standard
which streamlines the interface between both X11 and
OpenGL applications and
the X11 Server and video controller chips.
Xen - Novell is a contributor, but they don't own Xen, which is a
virtual machine
technology based on OSS technology and implements a Linux
based VM
capable of running Windows. Microsoft is trying to create
a proprietary
kernel capable ofr running Xen images under Windows, but
even that isn't going so well.
And what did Novell get from Microsoft?
Permission to call Microsoft libraries from WINE - This means that
SUSE Linux can run Windows Vista programs
using Windows Vista libraries and DLLs, so long as the
machine is licensed for Vista. Keep in mind that
prior versions of Windows, including XP and Windows 2000
only required that the machine be licensed for
that version of Windows. This was one reason why Linux
users often purchased PCs with OEM Windows
preinstalled, instead of simply purchasing "White Box"
machines.
Permission to remote access Windows consoles
Microsoft EULA forbids remote access of XP and Vista
machines using Linux machines unless those machines
are licensed with XP by the OEM. Windows 2000 had no such
restrictions. SUSE users can now use VNC or
remote access to access Windows machine consoles using White
Boxes. This means that OEMs could sell SUSE
"White box" machines that can access Windows XP and Vista
desktops or "terminal servers".
Permission to run Vista Home Basic VMs under SUSE Linux. The
standard VISTA EULA forbids this, but the
deal with SUSE seems to indicate that SUSE users can run
Vista Home Basic under their XEN or VMWare
or any of the other VMs now available for Linux.
It's possible that Microsoft is looking at the possibility of creating
a version of Windows that runs as a VM. It would be a very "bare
bones" system, containing only the drivers required to interface to
the VM. It would also have efficient libraries - perhaps based on
Windows 9x or Windows 2000, and would be a lighter version. It might
not have media support and wouldn't have/need most of the security
features added to XP and Vista. Such a product could be sold directly
to end-users and to white box OEMs for OEMs.
> O'REILLY - Death threats result in cancelled talk
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Sierra, who keynoted at this year's linux.conf.au in Sydney,
> | runs the Creating Passionate Users blog. (Editor's note: the
> | site now includes the graphic language and photos that Sierra
> | said caused her to pull out of the conference). She also is the
> | co-creator of the Head First computer book series and founder oft
> | he popular JavaRanch programmer site.
> |
> | For the past four weeks, Sierra noted on her blog, she has been
> | getting death threats on the blog.
> `----
>
> http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=502384060&rid=-50
>
> Here's one which I've just spotted in Netscape:
>
> http://tech.netscape.com/story/2007/03/27/are-linux-users-just-cheap/
>
> As my comment indicates, Microsoft folks are taking a stab at Linux, even in
> Netscape (which isn't quite a Microsoft turf).
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