Bonum Certa Men Certa

One-Year Anniversary 'Celebrations' -- Bruce Perens on the Novell/Microsoft Deal

A look back at Bruce's greatest hits

A year has gone by since Novell betrayed Free software. It has also been about 6 months since Bruce Perens last rained on Novell's parade, but let's bring back some memorable key events.

Perens to rain on Novell's parade

The topics will be

  • The Microsoft-Novell agreement
  • GPL version 3 and how it will impede Novell from making use of new innovation by the Free Software community
  • Software patents vs. Free Software.


Perens: Novell Apologies Debunked, 2700 People Sign Protest Letter

Obviously, the Free Software community feels very strongly about this issue. But Free Software is not the only party represented. Many of the signers identify themselves as recent Novell VARs and institutional customers who will now turn to another Linux distribution.


Bruce actually foresaw dangers such as the Novell deal back in 1999. Read the following:

Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution

Efforts to hurt us from inside are the most dangerous. I think we'll also see more attempts to dilute the definition of Open Source to include partially-free products, as we saw with the /Qt/ library in KDE before Troll Tech saw the light and released an Open Source license. Microsoft and others could hurt us by releasing a lot of software that's just free enough to attract users without having the full freedoms of Open Source. It's conceivable that they could kill off development of some categories of Open Source software by releasing a "good enough," "almost-free-enough" solution. However, the strong reaction against the KDE project before the /Qt/ library went fully Open Source bodes poorly for similar efforts by MS and its ilk.


Perens: Allegorical version of the Novell-Microsoft Patent Agreement

Once upon a time there was a software company called Novell. Novell had a friend "Big Mike" who was always getting in trouble with the law, but he was strong and had a big business.

[...]

The volunteers didn't like any of this. They made sure that Novell couldn't use any of their new work, but they shared it with all of Novell's competitors. The volunteers stuck Novell with the full cost of maintaining all of their old work without their help, for as long as Novell had to support its own customers. The volunteers were also business owners, developers, VARs, and IT managers, and they never recommended Novell for anything again.


Here is the Novell petition from Perens.

In short, now that Novell has chosen not to hang together with the Free Software community, we've chosen not to do so with you.


Xandros has not escaped Bruce's attention, either.

Here is a key article:

Perens blasts Microsoft/Novell 'protection racket

Salt Lake City -- In a small conference room across the street from the location of Novell's BrainShare conference, free-software advocate Bruce Perens attacked Novell's patent deal with Microsoft and said that Novell was enabling Microsoft to run "a protection racket" with the threat of its patents.

[...]

More than that, though, Perens said, if the Novell-Microsoft patent deal is allowed to stand. It would take only as few as "two or three intellectual property law-suits" of open-source developers or small business at a cost of at least $5 million dollars a pop, to destroy open-source development. So, from where he sits, Novell is running a "protection racket" with "Big Mikey" as the enforcer


And another:

Is Microsoft/Novell SCO All Over Again?

Several days after Novell's Brainshare conference, Scott talked to Bruce Perens about the reaction to his news conference criticizing Novell's financial and development agreements with Microsoft. In this conversation, Scott challenges an earlier Perens statement that the agreement amounts to "SCO all over again."


When the anti-GPLv3 brigade went loose, Bruce decided to strike back as well.

Perens Lashes Out at Claims GPL 3 Brings Legal Risks

"Let's make it clear that [ACT] is Microsoft's lobbying front and that they are going to paint as negative a picture as they can," Perens told eWEEK in an interview.

"Obviously, GPL software is displacing Microsoft enough to have them concerned, and it's doing it at customers who are important to them. A lawyer's job is to scare the other side if they can--because they know it's cheaper than winning a case in court," he said.


”We, for one, thank Bruce for spending so much time letting himself be heard by the media on this topic.“Perens is one among several vocal luminaries and journalists that protest against the patent deals. Other examples include ITWire, Groklaw, Matt Asay (OSI), and Dave Rosenberg (Open Sources). There is a lot more opposition, but not all of it is quite so loud and active. In terms of its protest visibility, we are probably standing at the top at the moment.

We, for one, thank Bruce for spending so much time letting himself be heard by the media on this topic. This site is by no means alone, it's not a niche, and it's not a faction or "clique o' zealots". This site brings a picture of reality -- one that some are too afraid to cope with, believe in, accept, and/or acknowledge.

Everyone whom I know that truly likes this deal is associated with Novell or Microsoft. Yesterday, it turned out that another journalist felt the same way. Read the following:

Does anyone care about the MS-Novell agreement besides, well, MS and Novell?

I realize it’s only one year in, but I think it would behoove Microsoft and Novell to flesh out what it is they mean when they talk about “interoperability frameworks” and the like. Revenue numbers from Novell for its OS business wouldn’t hurt, either.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day