Bonum Certa Men Certa

IDG Gives Novell a Podium, Zonker Denouncements Come

IDG IDC



Summary: Novell -- like Microsoft -- gets special treatment from IDG, with which it does business; MySQL acquisition debated further

OTHER than Microsoft, there are companies like Novell which feed pay-to-say firms like IDC [1, 2]. There is a good return on such investments, just like in lobbying, no matter how unethical it is.



Here is Novell's Zonker getting a seat at IDG, from which to promote Novell in the press (quite frankly, as usual). From Novell's marketing team:

Yesterday, Network World rolled out a new podcast series, Open Mic with Zonker, hosted by openSUSE community manager, Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier. The new series promises to give an insider’s view on what’s hot and new in the open source community with lively interviews.

In this first podcast, In the Linux Driver Seat with Kernel Developer Greg Kroah-Hartman, Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier talks with Greg Kroah-Hartman about the Linux Driver Project.


Here is the page in question. It's a pair of Novell employees promoting Novell's SUSE edition of Moblin (which has its problems). How familiar.

Does IDG present marketing here or is it actual coverage that's separable from commercial interests? This question is rhetorical. Novell pays a lot of money to IDG through advertising and IDC contracts.

Zonker also carries on comparing Free software to religion (at least based on terminology [1, 2, 3]), which is not entirely surprising.

We have a lot of “true believers” in the FOSS community, which is fine except that many seem to think that they’re talking to other “true believers” when they’re really talking to people who couldn’t possibly care less about software licensing.


“True believer” is a term conventionally used in debates against atheists. To his credit, however, Zonker agrees with Monty’s solution to Oracle-MySQL while obviously rejecting Stallman's ideas.

I prefer Monty’s solution to Stallman’s.


The headline of the above essay is "RMS says GPLv2 isn’t good enough to protect MySQL (but it is)." Given Novell's rejection of the GPLv3, would there not be a conflict of interests here? Zonker works for Novell. Here is Stallman's proposal:

The European Commission should block Oracle's acquisition of MySQL as part of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Oracle seeks to acquire MySQL to prevent further erosion of its share of the market for database software licenses and services, and to protect the high prices now charged for its proprietary database software licenses and services.


All along (since the beginning of this saga and the very announcement of a takeover) I have been against Oracle's buyout of MySQL, especially given its history of buying its competitors [1, 2]. It is therefore reassuring to see more opposition to Oracle buying MySQL.

Software freedom activist Richard Stallman and the non-profits Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Open Rights Group (ORG) have issued a strongly worded letter to EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. In it they demanded that Oracle not be allowed to acquire MySQL.


For obvious reasons, Sun employees are unhappy about this.

It was a surprise to see Richard Stallman's signature on a letter to the European Commission calling on them to block the acquisition of MySQL by Oracle with its proposed acquisition of Sun.


Piana's position is a bit surprising (he did legal work for Samba):

This is absolutely frivolous, and it reflects a misconception of how the forces in the Free Software space work. It is not that a successful dual licensing enables a successful Free Software project, it is a successful Free Software project that permits to a dual licensing strategy to survive.


At the moment, however, Richard Stallman and Monty Widenius are the latest and most prominent sources of opposition, whereas the former CEO of MySQL holds the very opposite view. Based on my conversations with him, he is a "pragmatist".

Monty Widenius, one of the original founders of MySQL, has called for Oracle to sell off the open source database so that its pending acquisition of Sun will not reduce choice in the marketplace.

[...]

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has firmly rejected the prospect of selling off MySQL. He argues that the open source database doesn't compete with Oracle's enterprise products. The two database offerings target different sections of the market, he contends.

It's unclear if the EU regulators will accept his view and allow the deal to move forward, but the delays are certainly damaging. While the EC is conducting its investigation, IBM is cannibalizing Sun's server business and picking the bones clean.


What makes this situation tough is that Sun loses a lot of money in the mean time and another 3,000 employees are to be cut. In many ways, Oracle has already caused much damage to its competitor MySQL, which holds almost 50% market share in developing countries.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
 
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux FUD From Slopfarms, Blaming Linux for Microsoft Issues; Even WebProNews Has Become a Slopfarm (Googlebombing "Linux" With Slop Images and Fake/Plagiarised Text)
The Web is really getting bad; it's also overwhelmed by fake material or plagiarised material, wherein the plagiarism gets disguised/hidden by LLM sausage factories
Links 03/06/2025: Tiananmen Square Massacre Censorship and Growing Military Activities Around Taiwan
Links for the day
Linux is Already Dominant (Android), Let's Make GNU/Linux Dominant in Desktops/Laptops as Well
"Dr. Stallman recently warned everybody about Microsoft."
The Loyalty to Microsoft and the Salaries From Microsoft (Funding SLAPPs Against Techrights and Tux Machines)
Garrett always knows better. He knows everything best.
Windows Falls in Italy as GNU/Linux Jumps to 5%
Italy knows a thing or two about digital autonomy
Nigeria is All Android and Google
Windows down to almost nothing in Africa's largest population
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Second Wave) Not Limited to Redmond
"More layoffs at Microsoft as axe falls in Washington and California"
Gemini Links 03/06/2025: Forth System and "Common Lisp is a Dumpster"
Links for the day
The Leaks Were Right: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in May, Then Another Wave in June
Just as we've been saying for over a month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 02, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 02, 2025