One blogger sure thinks it's the case, at least in some people's eyes. Of course, it is by no means justified. Those who contribute to Opensuse (formerly OpenSUSE or SuSE) are suddenly perceived as somewhat responsible for Novell's selfish action.

It's how businesses operate. Most CEO's in today's society make decisions and lead their company...perhaps an approving board jumps in to give a vote of confidence...but overall, the common employee or programmer isn't consulted on directions that a platform is going. It's like this for just about every company I've ever worked for...the 'small guy' isn't heard.

I had a short confrontation with Miguel de Icaza yesterday (context being Mono) and, as I told him at the time, I used to be an active participant of the Opensuse community. I provided assistance, I advocated, and I even contributed to some technical things from which Novell benefited. On November 2^nd, however, Novell betrayed its community in favour of its customers and its managers, essentially pulling the carpet from under our feet. Many of us no longer wanted to be associated with the behemoth which not only sold out its community, but also committed business suicide.