"Peace of mind, or else..."

Summary: Novell still uses software patents protection as a business proposition to users of SUSE

Dustin Puryear, who has defended the Microsoft/Novell deal, no longer seems too impressed by the patents part of it. From Network World (IDG):

Microsoft Canada has a case study out on a Proof of Concept (POC) they did with Novell for a client.

[...]

Here is a quote from the case study: “The organization has intellectual property (IP) peace of mind from the commitment Microsoft and Novell have made to bridge the gap between open source and proprietary software.”

Sigh.

It's good to see that people are not exactly tolerating this whole software patents protection racket ("intellectual property (IP) peace of mind" is a euphemism). The interesting thing is that in Google News, Novell has gone into a lot of pages in IT World Canada (IDG) in the months of May and June (possibly no accident). Maybe it's just a coincidence, but actually it's a bit of a nuisance and maybe it's intentional. Novell advertises with IDG.

Also from Network World we have this column titled "SCO: So die already!"

Another shoe has dropped for the SCO Group -- this makes about a dozen -- but when will this outfit go away?

First the SCO Group sues IBM for billions in a case related to alleged intellectual property infringement, and then it starts threatening Linux and Linux users. Then, after Novell says that the SCO Group does not have the rights to Unix that it needs to sue and threaten, it sues Novell. Since then it has been mostly downhill for the SCO Group.

SCO has definitely lost, but as we noted before [1, 2, 3], it is not waving a white flag yet.

In other Novell news, despite Microsoft's massive contribution to pollution [1, 2], "carbon footprint" is named as reason behind dumping Novell for Microsoft at WWF-UK:

Conservation lobbyist WWF-UK has moved to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to reduce its IT costs and carbon footprint.

The not-for-profit environmental group had been using Novell Groupwise since 1995, but had concerns about Novell's staying power and the availability of third party support.

Microsoft Exchange is not energy efficient. It uses Windows. They ought to have gone with Free software like Kolab, which is also far more secure than Exchange. This whole article smells like an advertisement, but we lack evidence to state/pose this as more than suspicion.

Closing off with some more Novell news, Adobe Flash is a hazard in SUSE, OpenSUSE Build Service makes some more waves [1, 2], and a business park where part of Novell is located gets revamped.

The business park is already home to IT firms Fujitsu and Novell, mortgage advisor GMAC-RFC and aviation product manufacturer Honeywell.

If Novell gets sold soon, it is likely to shrink. ⬆