04.19.07
Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, GPL, Novell, Virtualisation at 5:08 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
This is a short summary of what is in the news.
The first one is an interesting short article about 10 years of stock options errors at Novell. This is not the first time that we spot financial irregularities in the company. The second one is actually a praise. Novell wins CODiE Awards. Lastly, here is another take on GPLv3 and its purpose:
GPL version 3, as was the case with version 2, is merely an effort to protect Stallman’s four essential software freedoms.
Update: It turns out that Novell not only reported irregularities in its finances, but also further delays.
As a result of the ongoing review, Novell delayed the filing of its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006 and January 31, 2007 and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2006.
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Posted in Deals, Microsoft, Patent Covenant at 2:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
This is bad. It turns out that Samsung caved in to pressure and signed a cross-licensing deal with Microsoft, simply because it uses Linux.
As with Microsoft’s recent deal with Fuji Xerox, the software maker specifically notes that the deal will allow Samsung to offer products using Linux without concern that Microsoft will sue it or its customers.
As usual, there’s no mentioning of which patents are involved. At times like this we must realise what Novell has opened a door to.
Update: According to the press release, “Samsung and its distributors and customers may utilize Microsoft’s patents in Samsung’s products with proprietary software, and Samsung will also obtain coverage from Microsoft for its customers’ use of certain Linux-based products“. Linux-based products are not Linux itself. Begin to wonder about technologies like Mono.
Update #2: According to the Microsoft blog, Fuji-Xerox made a similar Linux commitment with Microsoft.
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