07.23.10

Novell Too Busy (With Proprietary Software) to Promote OpenSUSE

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Servers, SLES/SLED, Virtualisation at 10:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Novell continues to show that it doesn’t care about OpenSUSE; instead, it’s focused on marketing Fog Computing, proprietary software, and the Microsoft-taxed SLES

EARLIER this week we noted that Novell had put Banshee (patent liability) inside OpenSUSE 11.3 and gave this release so little attention that it deserves to lose possession of OpenSUSE and its volunteer workforce. We have spent a few hours going through Novell news and Novell sites, but all we found from Novell is this lousy press release from last Thursday (July 15^th, 2010). That’s all the promotion Novell appears to have done for OpenSUSE. Typical.

Looking at some news sites, none of the major ones covered this release, but some medium-sized ones did [1, 2] and so did blogs, e.g. [1, 2], or something in between [1, 2, 3, 4]. Some sites posted pictures and shared advice (e.g. [1, 2]), but there was nothing in Novell’s PR blog about the release of OpenSUSE 11.3. Instead, Novell chose to cover Fog Computing/virtualisation [1, 2], which led to articles around this particular theme.

Liquor group Pernod Ricard Australia has emerged as one of the early local pioneers for Novell’s Cloud Manager, currently available in beta form, prior to the product’s formal launch slated for September.

The posts from Novell’s PR blog simply beg for the characterisation of Novell as a Fog Computing company [1, 2] and also in the press (more mainstream press) people may get the impression that Novell is still a purely proprietary software company. The company’s staff is quoted on these matters, sometimes in the context of security [1, 2], though not in the SUSE/Linux sense.

“The PR blog sticks to Gartner boosting, quite frankly as usual.”Novell’s PR blog continues to cover proprietary software like identity management, which was covered/publicised in Forbes. The PR blog sticks to Gartner boosting, quite frankly as usual.

GroupWise 8 Service Pack 2 is released, but there are many flaws in this piece of proprietary software [1, 2, 3] and others.

The point to get across here is that Novell did nothing to promote OpenSUSE, except that one press release. When it comes to SLE*, Novell is poaching Sun customers and SLES (not OpenSUSE) was mentioned in relation to IBM’s proprietary offerings — ones that may relate to those “Cloud Competence” announcements from IBM (also here):

IBM is working with a range of business partners across cloud management, security, software development and testing support. As a result, IBM can offer clients flexibility, scalability, enterprise-grade security and control for development and test on the IBM Cloud. By co-operating with Novell for example, IBM has SUSE Linux enterprise components available and can offer its enterprise customers a full range of Novell capabilities for smart development and workload testing services.

Novell helps IBM with Fog Computing in Ehningen, Germany and it also promotes Fog Computing in China by helping to create a “Cloud Computing Laboratory”.

This is not about Free software at all. SUSE is in fact not free either and it carries with it a Microsoft patent tax. Who would choose to train for SLES rather than RHEL, for example? Some people might. From the news:

The Novell Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) 11 practicum exam is now available. This hands on assessment, which costs $195, is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and can be taken by individuals who currently hold a Certified Linux Professional (CLP) 10 or 11 credential.

Novell is up for sale and Red Hat’s market cap is almost 3 times that of Novell. So why would anyone choose to bet one’s future on SUSE? It’s a lost cause. █

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

What Else is New

US Courts Make the United States' Patent System Sane Again

35 U.S.C. § 101 (Section 101), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and other factors are making the patent system in the US a lot more sane
Today's USPTO Grants a Lot of Fake Patents, Software Patents That Courts Would Invalidate

The 35 U.S.C. § 101 effect is very much real; patents on abstract/nonphysical ideas get invalidated en masse (in courts/PTAB) and Director Andrei Iancu refuses to pay attention as if he's above the law and court rulings don't apply to him
A Month After Microsoft Claimed Patent 'Truce' Its Patent Trolls Keep Attacking Microsoft's Rivals

Microsoft's legal department relies on its vultures (to whom it passes money and patents) to sue its rivals; but other than that, Microsoft is a wonderful company!
Good News: US Supreme Court Rejects Efforts to Revisit Alice, Most Software Patents to Remain Worthless

35 U.S.C. § 101 will likely remain in tact for a long time to come; courts have come to grips with the status quo, as even the Federal Circuit approves the large majority of invalidations by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) panels, initiated by inter partes reviews (IPRs)
Florian Müller's Article About SEPs and the EPO

Report from the court in Munich, where the EPO is based
EPO Vice-President Željko Topić in New Article About Corruption in Croatia

The Croatian newspaper 7Dnevno has an outline of what Željko Topić has done in Croatia and in the EPO in Munich; it argues that this seriously erodes Croatia's national brand/identity
The Quality of European Patents Continues to Deteriorate Under António Campinos and Software Patents Are Advocated Every Day

The EPC in the European Patent Office and 35 U.S.C. § 101 in the USPTO annul most if not all software patents; under António Campinos, however, software patents are being granted in Europe and the USPTO exploits similar tricks
Team UPC is Still Spreading False Rumours in an Effort to Trick Politicians and Pressure Judges

Abuses at the European Patent Office, political turmoil and an obvious legislative coup by a self-serving occupation that produces nothing have already doomed the Unitary Patent or Unified Patent Court (UPC); so now we deal with complete fabrications from Team UPC as they're struggling to make something out of nothing, anonymously smearing opposition to the UPC and anonymously making stuff up
Patents on Life and Patents That Kill the Poor Would Only Delegitimise the European Patent Office

After Mayo, Myriad and other SCOTUS cases (the basis of 35 U.S.C. § 101) the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is reluctant to grant patents on life; the European Patent Office (EPO), however, goes in the opposite direction, even in defiance of the European Patent Convention
EPO 'Untapped Potential'

"Campinos is diligently looking for ways to further increase the Office’s output without increasing the number of examiners," says the EPO-FLIER team
Links 9/12/2018: New Linux Stable Releases (Notably Linux 4.19.8), RC Coming, and Unifont 11.0.03

Links for the day
Links 8/12/2018: Mesa 18.3.0, Mageia 7 Beta, WordPress 5.0

Links for the day
The European Patent Organisation is Like a Private Club and Roland Grossenbacher is Back in It

In the absence of Benoît Battistelli quality control at the EPO is still not effective; patents are being granted like the sole goal is to increase so-called 'production' (or profit), appeals are being subjected to threats from Office management, and external courts (courts that assess patents outside the jurisdiction of the Office/Organisation) are being targeted with a long-sought replacement like the Unified Patent Court, or UPC (Unitary Patent)
Links 7/12/2018: GNU Guix, GuixSD 0.16.0, GCC 7.4, PHP 7.3.0 Released

Links for the day
The Federal Circuit's Decision on Ancora Technologies v HTC America is the Rare Exception, Not the Norm

Even though the PTAB does not automatically reject every patent when 35 U.S.C. § 101 gets invoked we're supposed to think that somehow things are changing in favour of patent maximalists; but all they do is obsess over something old (as old as a month ago) and hardly controversial
The European Patent Office Remains a Lawless Place Where Judges Are Afraid of the Banker in Chief

With the former banker Campinos replacing the politician Battistelli and seeking to have far more powers it would be insane for the German Constitutional Court to ever allow anything remotely like the UPC; sites that are sponsored by Team UPC, however, try to influence outcomes, pushing patent maximalism and diminishing the role of patent judges
Many of the Same People Are Still in Charge of the European Patent Office Even Though They Broke the Law

"EPO’s art collection honoured with award," the EPO writes, choosing to distract from what actually goes on at the Office and has never been properly dealt with
Links 6/12/2018: FreeNAS 11.2, Mesa 18.3 Later Today, Fedora Elections

Links for the day
EPO, in Its Patent Trolls-Infested Forum, Admits It is Granting Bogus Software Patents Under the Guise of 'Blockchain'

Yesterday's embarrassing event of the EPO was a festival of the litigation giants and trolls, who shrewdly disguise patents on algorithms using all sorts of fashionable words that often don't mean anything (or deviate greatly from their original meanings)
The Patent Litigation Bubble is Imploding in the US While the UPC Dies in Europe

The meta-industry which profits from feuds, disputes, threats and blackmail isn't doing too well; even in Europe, where it worked hard for a number of years to institute a horrible litigation system which favours global plaintiffs (patent trolls, opportunists and monopolists), these things are going up in flames
Links 5/12/2018: Epic Games Store, CrossOver 18.1.0, Important Kubernetes Patch

Links for the day
Links 4/12/2018: LibrePCB 0.1.0, SQLite 3.26.0, PhysX Code

Links for the day
EPO Management Keeps Embarrassing Itself, UPC More Dead Than Before, and Nokia Turns Aggressive

The EPO’s race to the bottom of patent quality continues, it’s now complemented by direct association with patent trolls and law stands in their way (for they repeatedly violate the law)
The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) and IBM Are Part of the Software Patents Problem in the United States

IBM's special role in lobbying for software patents (and against PTAB) needs to be highlighted; even Ethereum’s co-founder isn't happy about IBM's meddling in the blockchain space (with help from Hyperledger/Linux Foundation)
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Not Falling for Attempts to Prevent It From Instituting Challenges

In the face of patent maximalists' endless efforts to derail patent quality the tribunal keeps calm and carries on smashing bad patents
Links 2/12/2018: Linux 4.20 RC5, Snapcraft 3.0, VirtualBox 6.0 Beta 3

Links for the day
The Patent Microcosm Hopes That the Federal Circuit Will Get 'Tired' of Rejecting Software Patents

Trolls-friendly sites aren't tolerating this court's habit of saying "no" to software patents; the Chief Judge meanwhile acknowledges that they're being overrun by a growing number of cases/appeals
35 U.S.C. § 101 Continues to Crush Software Patents and Even Microsoft Joins 'the Fun'

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and even courts below it continue to throw out software patents or send them back to PTAB and lower courts; there is virtually nothing for patent maximalists to celebrate any longer
The Anti-Section 101 (Pro-Software Patents) Lobby Looks at New Angles for Watering Down Guidelines and Caselaw

By focusing on jury trials and patent trolls the proponents of bunk, likely-invalid abstract patents hope to overrule or override technical courts such as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
Patent Trolls, USPTO Director Andrei Iancu and Section 101

The world’s most important patent office is now run by a courts-hostile person (an 'American Battistelli') who is happy to ignore the courts’ caselaw and listen to patent trolls instead; this means that science and technology, not to mention the law itself, will suffer