Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell, Stay Out of Russia With Your Microsoft Software Patents Scam (Updated)

"I've heard from Novell sales representatives that Microsoft sales executives have started calling the Suse Linux Enterprise Server coupons "royalty payments""

--Matt Asay, April 21st, 2008



The latest news from Russia, accompanied by a roundup of recent and related events, was posted just a few hours ago to show the impressive growth of Free software in this very large country. There is now an English translation/interpretation of this. [via Glyn Moody]

Russian Ministry on Information Technology and Communications published recently a document entitled Concept of development and usage of Free Software in the Russian Federation (Russian). It is a 29-page text, which is by far the most detailed roadmap of government involvement in Free Software. The legal status of this document is not very strong: in the recent Russian governmental tradition a ‘concept’ is a kind of a detailed policy declaration, which may not be fully observed or may even be rejected or forgotten after a short period of time. However, it may serve as groundwork for future projects and more specific policy measures. Thus, even though a concept document does not create anything by itself, its availability is necessary for creation of good things.


This is of course great news, but also just spotted in the blog of Novell's CMO was the following.

Dr. Summers talked without notes or charts (a great lesson for all presenters) on “America and the New Global Economy.” While the essence of Dr. Summers’ observations were on how America could continue to compete in the face of accelerating competition from China, India, and Russia, it was his remarks on innovation and the source of innovation that struck me, and I hope you, as the most profound.


Dragoon does not talk about Russia specifically, but he mentions it a couple of times. Novell is already moving its operations to India and recently we showed what great damage it does in China [1, 2, 3, 4]. That leaves Russia.

Stay out of Russia, Novell. It's doing just fine without your Microsoft royalties and with GNU/Linux distributions that are not Ballnux -- the abomination which is a seemingly Microsoft-owned Linux. Has Novell no shame? What's rather curious here is the similar approach Novell and Microsoft take when it comes to business in these nations. Those two close (and closed) companies share similar dilemmas in general.

All nations, including Russia, should steer clear of SUSE and Novell. Even OpenSUSE (or 'open' SUSE) does not offer anything of value (and neither does SLED) if the following verdict from yesterday is anything to go by.

To be honest I was a bit disappointed with openSUSE. Speaking about the good points, I liked the collection of software installed and the nice control center. But, I had no audio and the video was poorly configured with the liveCD. Also, the menu system just didn’t work for me. Having to go through 3 clicks to open a program is just too much, I can imagine going through this many times a day isn’t very interesting. For me, in this test I would give openSUSE 11 one and a half Pinguins, but since it is a poor cruelty to chop this cute animal, I’ll give two.

The problems that I encountered are most likely from openSUSE not having proprietary drivers installed, which is understandable. But, openSUSE`s Gnome layout was just too confusing for me to recommend to someone used to a Windows or KDE UI. The layout was just not effective.

Next up, we’ll take a look at the new Mandriva release.


As stated earlier, Mandriva seems to be growing to become Russia's favourite distribution in government. Even the schools, which adopt ALTLinux, are essentially using a Mandriva/Mandrake derivative.

(Mi)suse Linux: for misused customers who are naive enough (or scammed) to believe they must pay Microsoft for Linux.

Update: Matt Asay, who is in Russia at the moment, tells a story about FUD Microsoft has been spreading there.

I figured it would be good to note (and then bury) three myths that I heard perpetuated by Microsoft at the Interop Moscow conference. They've been largely discredited elsewhere, but it appears Microsoft prefers to keep regurgitating the party line until abject ridicule sets in.

1. Myth: Open source can't innovate. Coming from Microsoft...

[...]

2. Open source doesn't interoperate with other software well, while Microsoft does. Wow! The cheekiness of that one was breathtaking.

[...]

3. There is no money in open source. It's funny to hear Microsoft use this one, as if its customers are desperate to hear it talk about how much money it makes at their expense.

[...]

Microsoft has gotten better in its open-source rhetoric. Now it just needs to make sure its far-flung outposts get the message, too.


Is this really Novell's partner, which pretends it likes "open source" -- however it defines that term?

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft said “GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organisation.” But it's just an empty shell created earlier this year.
In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket
IBM Layoffs in MCC, or Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
IBM and Microsoft inflate their share price by circular financing
The Register MS gets Lazy, Uses Slop
Unlike 3-D renderings or "Classic" CG, slop images aren't quite original and definitely not fair use
Overly Maximalist, Expensive, Localised Patent Law is Dooming Western Companies, Argue 3-D Printing Champions
We've long warned (over 7 years already!) that China's approach to patents will impress WIPO by gaming the totals but will doom the West
Microsoft's Windows in Gabon: Still Moving Down
What is this Unknown? Who knows...
 
Links 19/08/2025: "NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science" and "Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate"
Links for the day
Phil Wyett evidence & Debian Zizian plagiarism, modern slavery tendencies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
In Many Countries People Move Away From Vista 11
Vista 11 has been available for download for 4 years already, but adoption has been poor
Desktops/Laptops Fall to All-Time Lows in the UK, So Why Does British Media Quote a Famous Criminal on "End of the Smartphone Era"?
mobile usage (for Web access) has never been higher, based on an Irish surveyor, statCounter
The Groklaw Web Site Has Been Hijacked by Scammers
Groklaw.net isn't a safe site to access at this time
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 18, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 18, 2025
Online Safety Act Does Not Tackle the Worst (and Biggest) Culprits
if our governments are serious about tackling online harms, then they need to look closely at GAFAM and social control media giants
Chat Control (1 and 2) in the European Union Sends the Wrong Message
This is an EU law
Slopwatch: Google News and Serial Sloppers (Fake Articles About "Linux")
Calling out the culprits
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Digital Legacy and Chat Control
Links for the day
English Law Misused by Americans and Irishmen Against Brits is Unfair
There's always a way to improve existing laws
Links 18/08/2025: "Microsoft Store" Gets Increasingly Hostile, "Cracking Abandonware DRM"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Summer "Gone" and Web Reposts in Gemini
Links for the day
Links 18/08/2025: LLM Reputation Damaged, Australia Catches Google Foul Play
Links for the day
Geeks Like GNU/Linux
The technical community seems to be consolidating and rallying around GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux is 486 in Ireland
4.86% that is
End of Reliable Media
it makes the world a worse place, it renders the Web a misinformation machine
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 17, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 17, 2025
GitHub Won't Last Much Longer
Many things at Microsoft are going to go the way of the Skype (or "dodo"). GitHub will be among those.
We've Never Used Large Language Model (LLM)
we just never used an LLM
"Secure Boot" is a Security Problem, Not a Solution
These people don't try to improve security but to undermine security
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Retro and Endless Escape from the WWW
Links for the day
Working Whilst Away From Home
Decades ago being away meant all sorts of problems associated with workflows and connectivity
The Next Version of Windows Will Always be the Best (for Microsoft)
It's worse and slower over time
"End of the Smartphone Era" According to Jeffrey Epstein's Key Enabler
They call it "sour grapes"
Links 17/08/2025: Strike Downs Air Canada, Postmortems of Putin's Red Carpet Summit
Links for the day
Links 17/08/2025: Slow Tools and Enshittification of YouTube
Links for the day
Don't Talk to Bullies
This serious matter is still being examined by British authorities
Links 17/08/2025: "The Performance of Power" and "My Undesirable Friends"
Links for the day
Growing Our Reach
Our goal was never "hits"
The Russian Vision of Technology
Russia's surveillance is very extensive
Sooner or Later Almost Everyone Will Know "AI" is Just a Go-To, Misused, Misapplied, and Grossly Overused Term of Liars and Con Jobs Who Ride a Ponzi Scheme
At the expense of people gullible enough to "invest" in this or take salaries/bonuses in the form of "stock" (tied to a Ponzi scheme)
The Register MS Has Begun Using Slop Images
It's not clear when it started; but it's definitely getting worse [...] Worst of all are 'articles' about slop that are themselves slop
Reddit Funded by Microsoft
Reddit is merely a filter and we knows who controls that filter (using money)
When It Comes to Technology, Mozilla and Firefox Are Illiberal
Last month in Planet Debian we saw one more person explaining to everyone how to "turn off" DRM in Firefox and hide the pop-up/s
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 16, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 16, 2025
The Open Source Initiative Has Many Scandals, We'll Try to Summarise Them All
Open Source Initiative (OSI) hates facts
Open Source Initiative (OSI), Wikipedia, Molly De Blanc, and Censorship/Reputation Laundering
OSI is like SPLC. The old name remains, the mission changed
Gemini Links 17/08/2025: Misunderstanding "Geminiverse" and Let's Encrypt
Links for the day
Links 17/08/2025: Breaches, Layoffs, and Scams
Links for the day