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We've already made some Cisco-Novell comparisons in the past in order to describe the companies' relationship with Microsoft. The latest debacle with Cisco, which is taken court for intentional GPL violations, makes another similarity, as Glyn Moody explains.

Once [Cisco] realises that its ignorance and indifference is seriously damaging its reputation among a key constituency – that of developers – I predict it will soon comply with the licence, not least because it will cost a trivial amount of money and effort to do so.

The key difference is that Novell, which knowingly betrayed the GPL (by spirit), is unlikely to ever go back. When it comes to developers and system administrators, Novell has already lost its reputation.

Novell became too dependent on being the bad guy. And as long as this relationship of Novell and Microsoft survives, there will be plenty of fuel for Microsoft to constantly attack GNU/Linux with threats and FUD. ⬆