Bonum Certa Men Certa

Groklaw Warns Against OpenSUSE and Novell Layoffs Foreseen

Groklaw headline

Summary: The collapse of Novell brings with it dangerous implications for those who contribute from the outside

A few days ago we showed that OpenSUSE had lost some of the people who regularly contribute to OpenSUSE Weekly News, which continues to be released nonetheless. Many volunteers apparently see no need to serve AttachMSFT [sic], which is the new home of a company that fed Microsoft with more software patents and subsequently got slammed by Groklaw (Pamela Jones called Novell a "community rat" [1, 2]). In a new post, Jones warns "OpenSUSE Guys" (probably the volunteers) that they ought to rethink or recheck what they do. To quote one key part:



I'm still working on the Comes v. Microsoft exhibits project, and I swore I'd finish first, so it will take me a while to get to this to explain in detail, but in the meantime, I just want to say to the community stakeholders in the OpenSUSE Project, here's what I think you should do:

Hire your own lawyer. Don't rely on Novell's lawyers to represent the community's interests in the foundation.

I'm as serious as a heart attack.


The same should probably go for Novell employees. Microsoft sucked the patents out of Novell and Singer threw the carcass at some tiny company that has no history in "open source". Meanwhile, one longtime supporter of Novell got in touch (via IRC) and told us yesterday that this news article states: "Utah County Job Club, which meets on Wednesdays at 8 a.m. at the Novell cafeteria conference room, 1800 S. Novell Place." The person then asked, "is that Novell trying to help its people find jobs?"

Maybe there are layoffs coming. It's unlikely that AttachMSFT will keep all of Novell's projects alive, so redundancies seem imminent. This also makes Mono and Moonlight very risky, so someone should pay attention to more of the same Banshee boosting from OMG!Ubuntu. Should we allow poisoning of Canonical/Ubuntu now? Microsoft has quite the reputation for company assassination and OpenSUSE was somewhat of a Trojan horse through which a team led by Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza tainted all the rest of the distributions (OpenSUSE was usually first to adopt these packages) and as someone from India put it yesterday:

@schestowitz I think #Microsoft is doing the same with openSUSE that #FBI did with BSD. They put backdoors and they are putting licensing..


Given Groklaw's new analysis which says to Henne "listen to your inner voice [...] I share your concerns," OpenSUSE should be forked immediately or its contributors moved to distributions which are not a vehicle for Microsoft et al. OpenSUSE falls into the same trap which Microsoft's Codeplex sank into by design. To quote Groklaw, "Outercurve's by-laws are here. Outercurve is what they call the Microsoft-organized and funded Codeplex Foundation now. Note that the by-laws were revised in November, and that Andy Updegrove was hired by them to help them out. They likely picked him because he trashed their original by-laws, and do read what he wrote, because it will show you the shadows behind the wording in bylaws."

“It's a shame that it takes people several years (after the Microsoft deal) to grasp the seriousness of this new situation.”For those who consider "Boycott Novell" to be insidious (I've just uploaded 9 parts of Jono Bacon's 2009 attack on "Boycott Novell"), please bear in mind that in 2005/6 I was promoting Novell in a very major way in newsgroups, mailing lists, and my blog. It's a shame that it takes people several years (after the Microsoft deal) to grasp the seriousness of this new situation. Groklaw is one of those who took over 4 years to wake up and smell the coffee. We, however, saw that coming years in advance. If we learn no lessons from Novell, then another company can have Microsoft 'pull a Novell' on it. Thankfully, Jono Bacon is becoming aware of it based on last night's IRC conversation (in logs which we'll post shortly).

Does anyone remember Novell's pro-GNU/Linux ads? Like the "I'm Linux" ad where Linux is the attractive girl? That was just before the Microsoft deal, which had Novell tear down criticism of Microsoft (Novell changed/censored its Web pages). Now we're left without the most major advertiser of GNU/Linux (at that time) while YouTube receives just more videos with lots of FUD in them (also embedded below). Just watch the following FUDfest where the man pretends it's counter-culture (or used by nerds only) and about cost/cheapness. Microsoft suspended Novell's pro-GNU/Linux marketing and if we ignore this, then other victims will fall into Microsoft's assassination/exploitation pipeline.



Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
 
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025