Bonum Certa Men Certa

2006 Déjà Vu: OpenSUSE FAQ as Damage Control

Photo of Johannes Mehserle used to symbolise recent trial of Novell's new manager, Jeff Hawn (downloaded from this page)

Johannes Mehserle



Novell in Provo



Summary: Novell's 'brain' moves to a company which is run by a man previously jailed for illegally murdering animals, one whose history at AttachMSFT has zilch to do with "open source" projects

OpenSUSE is a Novell product, albeit one of the least profitable ones. Novell used it for PR purposes and for free labour. AttachMSFT, on the other hand, need not prove that it doesn't give a damn about "open source". Its lack of "open source" history speaks for itself, so OpenSUSE members are rightly concerned.



Jeff 'Bison Slayer' Hawn was sort of interviewed by his employee, Jos Poortvliet, in order to create a face-saving FAQ just like the one produced with Ted Haeger and Ron Hovsepian after he had sold out to Microsoft in 2006. They tried to limit the damage before Haeger left the company due to "careless disregard for the people that the company never bothered to consult (including me)." This time too the OpenSUSE community was left out of Novell's decisions and to make matters worse, Novell gave many of its patents to Microsoft. Some deal, eh? It's like 2006 all over again.

Here is Poortvliet advertising the FAQ, which was also advertised by the KDE account in Identi.ca (seemingly used by this Novell employee for self-serving purposes). Based on what's said in the FAQ, this looks quite bad as it confirms what people have been saying for a while. AttachMSFT is likely to be worse than Novell when it comes to treatment of OpenSUSE (if that's possible at all, as Novell already neglected the project anyway, e.g. when it hardly provided server resources for hosting). To quote one part from the FAQ (they call it a "Q&A", but the questions raised are those which OpenSUSE folks wanted answered, so the community manager stepped forward):

Attachmate does not have a corporate track record in the open source business. However, we recognize the importance of open source technology, particularly Linux, and the growing value it brings to enterprises globally. We also recognize and value the openSUSE project, the contribution that the community makes to the SUSE business and most importantly, the many ways in which the community benefits SUSE customers.

At the end of the day, we are a technology company that is customer-driven, made up of engineers and technology enthusiasts. We have a lot of individuals that are long-time users of open source and participants in the open source movement. We recognize and understand what the community has developed, particularly over the last decade, and we are excited to be part of its future.


See the comments in LWN and the remarks from Phoronix, which concludes with:

It will be interesting to see how Attachmate operates Novell's business units and particularly their open-source projects once their billion dollar acquisition is complete.


OpenSUSE recently lost and replaced its leadership and here is the press release about it. They should all just fork the project. The sooner, the better.

Apart from OpenSUSE, it remains to be seen what AttachMSFT does with Mono. Sites like OMG!Ubuntu! (which promote a lot of Mono) keep deceiving on Novell's Banshee, which they insisted would be part of the next version of Ubuntu. We wrote about the subject in:



OMG!Ubuntu! is now saying that Banshee is not in Ubuntu 11.04, at least not yet (they contradict themselves and thus misinform readers):

To avoid any sensationalism, the switch has not yet been flipped, today Rhythmbox remains installed by default. This is likely to remain the case till at least January.


Banshee is being written by AttachMSFT (if at all), which expresses no real commitment to the "open source" projects it inherits from Novell, except SLE* (which is not really open source, either). Does Ubuntu want to set as default an application that can be orphaned soon? Surely they want to reconsider, or at least one would hope so.

Novell has just made another SUSE-related announcement, but it's about proprietary software, as usual.

NEC and Novell today announced the immediate availability of a high-availability and disaster recovery solution optimized for SUSE€® Linux Enterprise Server. Designed to enhance availability and serviceability in mixed operating system and hypervisor environments, NEC EXPRESSCLUSTER X 3.0 is now certified for and supported on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. First available in Japan, this new solution represents an expansion of the partnership between NEC and Novell to deliver mission-critical services to joint customers worldwide. As a result, it is now easier for IT organizations to ensure business continuity for environments containing both Linux* and Windows* workloads.


Techrights believes that AttachMSFT's commitment to Novell's "open source" projects will be weak. It might take some months for one to get definite answers though. In the mean time, it's safer to avoid everything from Novell. The company is not in good hands (just watch what another cowboy, Darl McBride, did with SCO). Even VMB_ware would have been better.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
 
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: Books and Cold Tea
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: More Layoffs, Nokia Again Takes Advantage of Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court With Nokia Staff as 'Judges'
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: Seizures and Returns to Windows of 24 Years Ago
Links for the day
LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
It's hard to find accurate information
Links 02/04/2025: Microsoft Developers Are Threatening to Go on Strike, World Backup Day Noted
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
For any "data plan" with bandwidth limits or "tiers" it would be cheaper to use/browse Geminispace
The Web Can Survive LLM Slop, But Only If We Collectively Shun and Discourage Serial Sloppers
Doing nothing ought not be a possibility
Amid Secret Shut-downs and Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (4 Waves of Layoffs in 3 Months of 2025) Some Microsoft Staff Expected to Go On Strike
workers going on strike
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: No more on Mastodon and Gemini Mention Script in Go
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 01, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 01, 2025
My Motion Disbarring or “Striking Off” Brett Wilson LLP for Enabling Violent Americans Who Try to Crush Microsoft Critics in the United Kingdom by Multiple SLAPPs
"Guns for hire" (for Microsoft people who received Microsoft salaries)
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hijacked Again by Patent Litigation Industry, as President Cheeto Prioritises Aggressors
The "mafia" has taken over the "industry" and the Federal system (justice and constitutions trampled upon)
Ubuntu Slop and FUD Manufactured With LLMs and Funded (by Oneself) 'Studies'
Slop and FUD are ruining the Web