Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part II: SLES in IBM Mainframes and HP, Other Ballnux Distributions (Bada)

Large iguana



Summary: News about Free software that Microsoft is "taxing" using unnamed software patents (Ballnux distributions) with the consent/cooperation of the distributors

ANOTHER week goes by and later on we will show that Novell is losing its "Linux" focus. Among the news we can find SUSE mentioned, but not as much as it used to. Here in The Register there is news about Red Hat abandoning Itanium (it's about time). Tim uses this as an opportunity to describe what he sees as an opportunity for SUSE.





Unless Novell plans to continue to continue to support Itanium boxes with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, of which, by the way, Novell has said very little. For all we know, SLES 12 wasn't going to support Itanium chips either. Perhaps Red Hat pulling the plug on Itanium with RHEL 6 will give Novell a niche it can support, much as it already does on IBM's System z mainframes: Novell claims to have sold 85 per cent of the Linux licenses on Big Blue's big iron.


SLES is quite big in IBM's high-end mainframes -- a fact that is mentioned here as well.

SLES will be running on Blades in another place:

For business intelligence and customer relationship management, Pernod Ricard uses Cognos, Informatica, CPWorks and Oracle Cubes. This meant any new solution would have to fit into the IT family. After consulting with technology services partner AkurIT and reviewing various solutions, Pernod Ricard opted for new IBM blade hardware running on Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Serverm, which comes with built-in Xen virtualisation software and that worked well with the company's Windows-based servers.


Another potential area of growth for Novell is a new HP initiative, which is described in:

Hewlett-Packard Partners With Microsoft, Novell And Red Hat To Streamline Sun Migrations - Update

HP Partners with Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat in Courting Sun Users

Sun customers migrating to HP

HP swooping in on Sun customers

HP tempts Sun users with Linux and Microsoft discounts

HP expands partnerships in ongoing assault on Sun install base

HP Eyes Sun Migrations

HP, Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat Deliver Solutions to Simplify and Speed Sun Migrations

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced it has partnered with Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat to provide customers with service offerings, incentives and training programs that streamline the migration from Sun to HP-based solutions, while reducing total cost of ownership.


HP Enlists Partners to Help Steal Sun's Customers

While IBM has its Migration Factory program to help in the process, HP has the former EDS (now called HP Enterprise Services) -- and now can add Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat to the list.


HP steps up drive to nab Sun customers

Hardware giant HP has enlisted the help of vendors Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat to help it continue taking customers from rival Sun Microsystems.


Here is Novell's PR team bragging about SUSE Studio:

SUSE Studio has been named by eWEEK Labs as a 2009 Enterprise IT Product of the Year. According to eWEEK, each year they name products that stood out in their testing in the past 12 months. The focus on products that “raise the technology bar in their category; innovate in some significant way; better align IT with business needs; and, in general, make day-to-day life easier for IT professionals.”


Cornelius wrote some more about SUSE Studio:

Easter eggs are fun. A special kind of them are winter easter eggs (do you still call this easter egg?). In the spirit of this tradition we added some snow to SUSE Studio last week. Now when booting a virtual appliance in SUSE Studio's testdrive today, the openSUSE boot screen was all snow with some penguins wandering around. What a splendid coincidence. I guess you can call this a virtual easter egg. Fun :-)


Xandros



Xandros is hardly in the news at this stage. Not-so-exciting news for Xandros in this post:

I just got myself an Eee PC 900A. I augmented the RAM to bring it up to 1.5GB and am considering a hard drive upgrade. It was running Xandros Linux, but I didn’t like it much. So, I upgraded it to the Easy Peasy Ubuntu Linux, made specifically to run on Eee PCs. It works for me. I love this little netbook. It fits in my totebag. It has Wi-fi. It’s great for using the web. Would I recommend one of these for just anyone? No. It’s more of a “geek’s” netbook. For everyone else, I would get the Acer Aspire One netbook.


Samsung



The announcement about Bada is a little old by now, but some sites are still catching up.

Samsung has launched the Bada mobile platform, envisioning an ocean of applications from developers. To encourage such apps, Samsung is offering a $2.7 million Bada competition. Twitter, EA Mobile, and Gameloft have signed on as Bada development partners. An analyst said Samsung may have trouble convincing consumers and developers to accept Bada.


Fabrizio Capobianco points out that "Bada starts with bad", which he thinks is a bad way to start. Bada is almost phonetically similar to "Ballnux", which means that the distribution is taxed by Microsoft (Ballmer). There are other issues:

First of all, it is yet another platform. How many do we need?? Enough already... There is a reason why Funambol decided to acquire an Ajax framework. The future of mobile development is web apps, locally installed with sync and push... We are fed up with any language which is not Javascript+HTML+CSS.

Bada is C++. Developers have had enough of C++, they need something cool to feel their time spent in front of a computer is worth it. I know it is geeky to talk about languages, but Windows Mobile is not going anywhere, also because people like to use Java. And Objective-C is kinda cool.


Samsung phones are coming to the UK and buyers should be aware that their rebadged phones (H1/Vodafone 360) are helping Microsoft's plot against Linux, using imaginary software patents.

The H1 is Vodafone's first handset designed specifically for their new Vodafone 360 service, the other being the M1. Both handsets are made by Samsung (the H1 being designated the i8320), but only available from Vodafone. The H1 is also a LiMo handset - it runs on a Linux-based operating system, which again, is new.


LG is another company that participates in Microsoft's Linux racket. It has this new phone, but there is no evidence to suggest that it contains Linux.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
 
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day