05.12.11
People Who Left SUSE Because of Novell’s Atrocious Patent Deal
Summary: FLOSS Weekly host Aaron Newcomb admits that it was the Novell/Microsoft deal that got him out of SUSE
MANY people left OpenSUSE (or SUSE) when Novell signed the deal with Microsoft. Some waited until the next installation cycle (I am among them), so it was not an overnight breakup.
SUSE is getting back into its roots in Germany (which is a key market for Novell) while the Microsoft-centric Mono implodes (although we recently learned that Mono sneaks into Android’s latest release — a subject we are still researching). “Mono boosters on FLOSS weekly,” alerted us one reader about this new episode. I listened to the entire show this afternoon and heard what he meant, but I reserve judgment as I quite like both hosts. I was also on the show before. As a quick remark, I will only rebut the show’s title by saying that it’s FLOSS Weekly which has a “Demise” (with Leo and others like DiBona stepping away), not FLOSS. Additionally, the Linux-hostile Netflix sponsorship of the show is testament to an issue we raised here before. What was interesting about this episode is that one of the hosts, Aaron Newcomb (shown on the right), admits that he abandoned SUSE because of the Novell/Microsoft deal. That’s yet another person who confirms it. It’s important because Novell loved pretending that the deal had no such effect and that “customers loved it” (or something along those lines).
It is believed that SUSE will be sold, which will sadly enough leave good people in a bit of a limbo. Maybe they can start looking for employment in other places. Novell and Microsoft ruined SUSE. █
