€¿Mono? Mono. No!

Microsoft's PDC has already featured a variety of starring exhibits like Vista 7 [sic], Azure (Hailstorm reborn), a Web-based version of Office (that's not new) and... Novell. Yes, Mono and Novell are so much of an asset to Microsoft, in contrary to what Miguel de Icaza wants critical crowds to believe. Might it be because of software patents? Or dominance of APIs? Either way, for everyone's eyes:

What a difference a few years -- and a Novell-Microsoft alliance -- can make. The partnership struck between Microsoft and Novell has resulted in much friendlier relations and regular communications between the two companies. Mono also has come out with an open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight technology, dubbed Moonlight. And de Icaza will finally get to lead a PDC session about Mono at 4:45 p.m. later this afternoon here at the conference.

He happens to present in quite a few Microsoft conferences.

Based on another new article, this one from eWeek, Microsoft has no interest in Free software and royalty-free (as in libre) standards. The "interoperability" buzzword is all over the place. It often contradicts Freedom. The only cooperation Microsoft is interested in is to be based on Novell-type patent deals [1, 2, 3]. Horacio Gutierrez made it very clear that all the sweet talk may just be fluff and bluff for press. Behind the scenes, it's a foreplay for extortion which they already engage in rather secretly.

Microsoft OpenOffice.Nov

“For Microsoft to get more closely involved in OpenOffice, it can passively operate through Novell and its fork.”The previous post talked about Apache and how Microsoft wants it to work better (or more widely) on Windows. For Microsoft to get more closely involved in OpenOffice, it can passively operate through Novell and its fork [1, 2, 3]. With OOXML, Mono and Windows integration (e.g. fonts and macros), Microsoft might already be using Novell as its vassal to achieve exactly that.

Novell already prioritises Windows as a platform for OpenOffice while it's leaving other platforms like GNU/Linux out in the cold. But there appears to be a belated arrival. A few hours ago, Petr Mladek (of Novell/SUSE) announced:

---

[opensuse-announce] OpenOffice_org 3.0 final available

Hi,





I’m happy to announce that the build 3.0.0.3.5 passed testing and 
OpenOffice.org 3.0 final packages are available in the Build Service 
OpenOffice:org:STABLE project.





Note that OOo is very complex application. We are sure that some annoying bugs 
will be found within the following weeks. Please report bugs into bugzilla. 
See also known bugs below. I would like to update the package once again 
within next two weeks with some important fixes that will be available in the 
meantime.





Note that openSUSE-11.1-betaX and FACTORY include totally reworked packages 
where the build is split into many source packages. It is a bit broken right 
now. We would like to put it into the Build Service as soon as possible but 
it will take some time to fix the build on older distributions again. Please 
be patient.





Where to get it:
----------------
The list of installation repositories can be found at
http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories#OpenOffice.org_STABLE





Installation problems:
----------------------
There are some problems with the version update on older distributions. You 
might need to select the right version by hand, see 
http://en.opensuse.org/OpenOffice#Dependencies_During_Update





IMPORTANT





The packages with localizations are renamed from OpenOffice_org-<lang> to 
OpenOffice_org-l10n-<lang>. Also the localized help content is split into the 
optional OpenOffice_org-help-<lang> packages. Finally, the American 
localization is split into extra packages OpenOffice_org-l10n-en-US and 
OpenOffice_org-help-en-US.





We are sorry, the 64-bit packages are not available for SLED10 and 
openSUSE-10.2. You could install the 32-bit (i586) packages there.





Bug reports:
------------
Please report the bugs into https://bugzilla.novell.com/ for the 
product "OpenOffice_org 2.0". Do not forget to mention enough information 
about the problem, see http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs:OOo.





Known bugs:
-----------
    	* TOC with hyperlinks is corrupted when exporting to MS Word file format
          (bnc#438525)
    	* can’t change text size in merged cells (bnc#437137)





Changes in this version:
------------------------





The GO-OO project changes are listed at
http://svn.gnome.org/svn/ooo-build/tags/OOO_BUILD_3_0_0_3_5/NEWS





General information about the build:
------------------------------------





The build is based on the GO-OO project. It includes lots bug fixes, features 
and optimizations in compare with the regular OpenOffice.org build:





	* improved VBA interoperability
	* improved import filters (OOXML, WordPerfect)
	* additional import filters (SVG, WordPerfect Graphics, Microsoft Works, ...)
        * native KDE Open/Save dialog
	* WebDAV locking
	* new 3D slide transitions
	* multimedia in Impress via GStreamer
	* multiple formula syntax (Calc A1, Excel A1 and Excel R1C1)
	* ...





, see also http://go-oo.org/discover/

---

Notice the inclusion of GO-OO. Novell is trying to take the lead and steal Sun's thunder. Will users trust a company that puts Microsoft's 'protected' technology (which only Novell customers are permitted to use) inside an office suite? A company that discriminates against GNU/Linux in a variety of ways? Well, that's Novell.

We don't know yet if Novell is "the next SCO." As we stated over a year ago, it's a lot more likely that Microsoft takes the leading role as SCO's successor. Groklaw opines similarly. But Novell is just a tool. Novell is the next BayStar, merely fueling litigation prospects. ⬆

"On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO's strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO's financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital."

--Bruce Perens