Windows NV…

Wouldn’t that step on some NVIDIA project toes?

Windows NV

***

I’m a big believer in forks. I like the wikipedia definition because I think that forking with intent to maintain your own software (vs to merge back) should be the default assumption. You never know how much you may diverge. With tools like git, in fact, I think the implication is that everyone maintains their own fork.. there is no real central repo. ..I’m for finding ways of managing complexity rather than avoiding it.

So I don’t use “fork” as a derogatory term. Rather, people should try to be smart about which forks they want to get close to. I hope to find time soon to be able to work seriously on a project where forking is simple, fun, and the natural way.

I live in the UK where most software patents yet aren’t an issue, however, that may change in the next few years..

Hmmm, Nindows… maybe it should just be called Windows NT?

Talk about spin there. My phrasing was correct, you just attempt to repose the question now.

Roy’s Mono ramblings were not the point of this article (at least as the title implies) but just his usual rambling / babbling (which you can try to take serious or not).

That’s the _whole point_ of free software after all.

Point being, the kernel is patched and it isn’t different from what “bad bad Novell” ™ does!

@Marty:
Thanks for the examples.
Regarding the Microsoft Novell deal you might want to read http://en.opensuse.org/FAQ:Novell-MS

AFAIK it doesn’t apply to openSUSE but neither am I sure nor do I care since that whole point is about _IF_ some retarded american (since software patents thankfully don’t hold elsewhere) court decides Linux would violate Microsoft patents then Novell customers would be protected.

It doesn’t matter IMHO because:
1. where I live software patents aren’t valid
2. I doubt Microsoft will ever go in front of a court to get a definitive decision. If they would be sure to win they had already tried much earlier instead of getting Linux as big as it has become.

On the other hand, I suppose that best argument Chris could make is that if customers want to buy a Microsoft Office or other Microsoft product that runs on Windows, would that be ok. I suppose I’d even be tempted to agree with that–though my own software kosher laws would prohibit me from buying the Microsoft product.

My interpretation of this particular issue with Mono and Suse views the Mono as MS platform as less sinister than Roy does. The reason for the difference is I believe that when Microsoft looks to selling its products to Linux users as a source of income, Microsoft will be a much smaller threat. Microsoft’s foul play now is the real issue.

The lion’s share of distributions are derivatives, e.g. Sabayon, Mint, Omega, Pardus and so on. It would surprise me if they have kernel hackers that make something truly unique.

Anyways, Slackware uses vanilla kernels if I recall.

Also, Arch Linux takes kernel.org kernels and only changes them once in a while to fix security issues; other than that their kernels are always vanilla (updates are usually updating to the next minor official release)

By the way, does MS’ deal apply fully to OpenSuSE too? =]

I’m not sure what point you were trying to make, but I don’t see anything different about what OpenSUSE does with their kernel.

So, before you make an even bigger fool out of yourself, do yourself a favor and get your facts straight – as in have a look at the kernel packages of Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, Ubuntu, RHEL and all the other distros you know and if you find one that really uses an unmodified / unpatched kernel, let me know here since I would be curious.

As I already said openSUSE & SLE use a patched vanilla kernel – which is exactly what most if not all other distributions do.

Very few do. They inherit it from kernel.org or the distribution from which they are derived.

However, that’s not the point here.

You said:

1. “Novell maintains its own variant (or branch) of Linux”
2. “The kernel that Novell puts in SUSE. Not so many distributions have their own. In fact, very few do.”

To me this reads like you want to imply that the way SLE and openSUSE (Novell products) use the vanilla kernel is different from the way other distributions use it.

Please explain what you mean with “its own variant” and how that differs from what other distributions do. As I already said openSUSE & SLE use a patched vanilla kernel – which is exactly what most if not all other distributions do.

1. The kernel that is used in openSUSE and SLE is a patched vanilla kernel and therefore isn’t any different from the way Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, RHEL and all the others use the vanilla kernel. If you don’t believe it simply look into the kernel’s src.rpms. Or are you applying Wikipedia’s definition of a “fork” (like in that OpenOffice “article”) – as in even the slightest bit of modification would result in a “fork”. If so please enlighten us which distribution uses an original – as in unpatched – vanilla kernel since I don’t know a single one that doesn’t patch the vanilla kernel.

Whoa. Who said anything about a “fork”? See my previous comment.

2. What you are saying isn’t true – except that you are probably right that Novell employs a few of the main Mono developers.

A few?

Be sure to also check the names. Some of them are indirectly employed by Microsoft.

3. IMHO it is kinda amusing that first you tried to make such a big fuzz about those things (proprietary software and the EULA) and now dismiss it as “irrelevant comments”. Once more it shows that you aren’t interested in objective facts but simply bend the truth if it fits you and ignore the rest.

No, I’ll be covering this tomorrow.

2. What you are saying isn’t true – except that you are probably right that Novell employs a few of the main Mono developers.

3. IMHO it is kinda amusing that first you tried to make such a big fuzz about those things (proprietary software and the EULA) and now dismiss it as “irrelevant comments”. Once more it shows that you aren’t interested in objective facts but simply bend the truth if it fits you and ignore the rest.