Novell's screw-other-Linuxes-as-a-business-model strategy is treated too lightly by the Linux Foundation, which itself is funded by Novell (at least partially). The complaints about this need not be justified again, but Groklaw seems to have taken a similar stance, referring to this ("Highlights of the Linux Foundation End User Summit will include: An address from Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, which will include a Q&A with the Linux Foundation’s executive director Jim Zemlin.") and then adding: "Here's a question for him. "How could you?" And "When are you going to figure out the role the GPL plays?"
Curiously, one of the major drivers behind Novell’s Linux business it its controversial partnership with Microsoft. While many open-supporters hate this deal, Novell has reason to love it.
Sean: Let me ask you a question in a different area. Generally speaking, in the open source community, there’s a somewhat mixed reaction to Novell having agreements with Microsoft. Do you feel that any controversy in that area has an effect on uptake of openSUSE?
Joe [Brockmeier]: When I took the job, that was one of the first things that I expected a lot of questions on, and in fact I did at one time, because everyone thinks that it’s the elephant in the room. But when I go to open source conferences and actually talking to users and whatnot, I generally haven’t found it to be as big of an issue as is generally suggested in the press. This is not to say that it’s not an issue at all, but it’s hardly the only issue, and after nearly two years, a lot of people have realized it’s not the catastrophe that some painted it as when it was announced.
I think there are some folks that are very active online trying to complain about this particular issue, and they’re welcome to that viewpoint. I would suggest that maybe if you are deeply committed to open source, perhaps your time would be better spent in doing something positive.
That's what Novell asked for
Comments
aeshna23
2008-08-31 13:30:36
There are many ways we can go astray and there is often an urgent need to discuss what these ways may be. The issues raised here about how Linux may go astray are urgent and substantial and should be discussed--not silenced by Zonker's petty accusation that we are merely whining.
Dan O'Brian
2008-08-31 13:35:52
Chris
2008-08-31 14:05:54
please be so kind to enlighten us why it's AstroTurfing if Novell hires a PR guy / community manager who then does his job but perfectly fine if Ubuntu et al do exactly the same!
Also I, probably as well as many others, would be very interested in knowing what your contributions to Free Software are - obviously except this little site.
regards Chris
aeshna23
2008-08-31 14:32:52
It seems strange to me that anyone who supports Free Software would desire to squelch this discussion. If Roy is right and Mono is indeed a patent trap, Roy's effort may help prevent hundreds of thousands[*] of programmer man-hours going into a blind alleyway. Such a contribution seems huge to me.
[*]This guess was entirely made-up, but seeing how much work goes into gnome, I think it quite likely that tens of thousands would be too small.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-08-31 15:00:13
I've published some Free software and I still actively contribute to some projects. You probably already know that.
HC
2008-08-31 16:42:51
I follow your articles quite a bit and I agree with you a lot of the time. Keep up the good work. And please do ignore these paty basement dwellers who are most likely beholden to Novell anyways.
Oi Dan, if you don't like the articles, why don't you go somewhere for your fill of Novell info instead of trolling here all day.