FOSDEM Gets Flak Because of Novell Sponsorship

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-09 12:48:22 UTC
Modified: 2009-01-09 12:48:22 UTC

SOME OF US saw this happening in India [1, 2, 3, 4] and we've already voiced concerns about FOSDEM as well. It turns out we're now alone. Here is a formal letter of complaint about Novell's sponsorship of FOSDEM 2009:

The community is very important, and that is the reason why it shouldn't blandly (pun intended) accept money from an element which has “bought” its way into the community with "dirty" money, using it as a sort of cheap good-will shop to increase it's leverage in it. This is particularly bad as it is a close partner of a certain monopolist software company which has been trying to kill Free Software for over a decade.

[...]

Instead of making a single effort to calm the ocean waters, by rejecting community-dividing patent agreements, by enticing their top engineers to write community embracing comments instead of further dividing the community with extremely hostile comments (that apparently forget years of bad blood against the Free Software bore by Microsoft and incited upon it's partner networks). Just notice how Novell doesn't do a single action in this direction, but instead keeps announcing more and more Microsoft integration and support. What's wrong with this picture?

In conclusion, please tell us how much do you need the community to help you, with hard cash, in order to replace Novell's sad contribution. I'm sure that given a goal we'll meet it, if not for 2009, then surely for 2010.

Here's to a great FOSDEM'09 without proprietary software sponsors!

Maybe it's a little bit like OSCON and OSBC. Those who accept Microsoft or Novell money are causing damage to their own conference/symposium. ⬆

Say No to Novell

Comments

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-09 14:48:37

I have a feeling Mr. Rui Miguel Seabra won't be able to come up with the kind of cash that Novell is giving to FOSDEM because only a handful of people are actually opposed to this, and none of them have paying jobs :)
Lyle Howard Seave

2009-01-09 15:33:27

If you want to leave them a quick note why you dont think it is ok for a their sponsor to be a company that openly helps promotes the idea that there is a legal Linux (the ones who paid the extortion fees) and the others are stealing Microsoft's IP, their email address is

info@fosdem.org
Rui Seabra

2009-01-09 15:49:58

Oh my, I've hit BN!

@Dan O'Brian: no shit, Sherlock!

I'm not proposing to replace Novell's payment with my account's content, but I'm confident that people would gladly contribute enough I resent that "none" you mention there
Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-09 15:51:19

Dan has always been here just to heckle and provoke, so...
Philip Paeps

2009-01-09 22:03:47

FOSDEM is a technical conference for open source software developers, not a political conference for free software activists. There happen to be a number of free software activities at FOSDEM because many (most?) free software activists happen to write open source software. FOSDEM explicitly focuses on technical aspects of open source software, not on the politics of free software.

Of course, the FOSDEM organization welcomes individual donations.
Baby In The Bath Water

2009-01-09 22:21:23

Oh, snap! Rui just got bitch slapped!

Note: this comment was posted from Novell's headquarters.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-09 22:29:09

Philip Paeps,

This is a euphoric point of view. You can't just escape issues that apply to your software. Or in the words of RMS, "Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone."

Roy Bixler

2009-01-09 22:31:32

@Baby In The Bath Water: That's a nice choice of handle if you want to troll.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-09 22:39:53

Mr. "In The Bath Water" has posted a lot of comments here.

He posted each and every one of them from 130.57.22.201

Oh, lookie here:

http://ws.arin.net/whois/?queryinput=130.57.22.201

OrgName: Novell, Inc. OrgID: NOVELL-1 Address: 1800 South Novell Place City: Provo StateProv: UT PostalCode: 84606 Country: US

NetRange: 130.57.0.0 - 130.57.255.255 CIDR: 130.57.0.0/16 NetName: NOVELL-WEST NetHandle: NET-130-57-0-0-1 Parent: NET-130-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Assignment NameServer: NS.NOVELL.COM NameServer: NS2.NOVELL.COM Comment: RegDate: 1988-06-03 Updated: 2004-05-05

RAbuseHandle: BWA3-ARIN RAbuseName: Wayne, Bruce RAbusePhone: +1-801-861-2222 RAbuseEmail: bwayne@novell.com

RNOCHandle: BWA3-ARIN RNOCName: Wayne, Bruce RNOCPhone: +1-801-861-2222 RNOCEmail: bwayne@novell.com

RTechHandle: BWA3-ARIN RTechName: Wayne, Bruce RTechPhone: +1-801-861-2222 RTechEmail: bwayne@novell.com

OrgTechHandle: DNJ4-ARIN OrgTechName: Johnson, David N. OrgTechPhone: +1-801-861-2561 OrgTechEmail: dnjohnson@novell.com

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-01-08 19:10 # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

Yes, we get many trolls from Novell and the vicinity of S.u.S.E. (in Germany)

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-09 23:46:03

Batman works at Novell.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-09 23:56:14

Humour won't save you, Dan. You've always refused to say who you work for.

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-09 23:58:53

I was commenting on the Bruce Wayne contact info for the novell.com domain. I found that amusing :-)

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-09 23:59:54

His secretary is called Robin.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-10 01:40:10

RMS said: “Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won’t leave you alone.”

One might add: “Geeks like to think that they can ignore astroturfing, you can leave astroturfers alone, but astroturfers won’t leave you alone.”

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-10 01:43:03

All of the comments by "Baby in the Bathwater" that you linked to were corrections on your misinformation.

I think that's fair.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-10 02:00:13

Are Novell employees babies in the bathwater?

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-10 02:25:14

You throw out their opinions simply because they are from Novell, so I suppose that yes they are :)

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-10 02:28:27

It should be embarrassing for Novell that they /secretly/ stalk and ridicule critics.

So who are /you/ working for, Dan? Any relations to Novell?

It's like the tenth time I ask.

Shane Coyle

2009-01-10 05:11:18

If it turns out that Dan is actually Steve Ballmer, what then would it prove?

Likewise, what if Roy is actually twitter? Or, better yet, what if Roy is actually an experimental A.I. created by Red Hat running on a beowulf cluster of PS3's - just to attack Novell - would that make the postings more or less credible?

Since we embrace the bazaar development model for postings, especially in regards to releasing early and often, maybe it's better to look at comments more as bug reports that require investigation before suspicion.

Just a thought.

Note: the writer of this comment wants to look cool with one of those ominous-looking disclaimer texts.

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-10 05:14:38

Thank you Shane, for bringing logic and reason to this site.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-10 09:16:44

Should we also not care if some Linux-hostile article was ghostwritten and published as a plant from Microsoft, as in the case of M. O'Gara?

Should we not mind if Gartner is paid by Microsoft to manipulate bogus studies (more on that to come)?

Dan O'Brian

2009-01-10 12:45:19

Respond to the article with facts, same as any other.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-10 13:01:36

Respond to the article with facts, same as any other.

So you endorse "planting" stories and bribing analysts?

Roy Schestowitz

2009-01-13 13:40:34

There seems to also be a rebuttal here:

http://www.paeps.cx/weblog/fosdem/letting_the_community_help.html

FOSDEM Gets Flak Because of Novell Sponsorship

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