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

Why We're Reporting Brett Wilson LLP for Apparently Misusing Their Licence to Protect American Microsofters Who Attack Women
For those who have not been keeping abreast
Stefano Maffulli and His Microsoft-Funded OSI Staff Are Killing the OSI and Killing "Open Source" (All for Money!)
This is far from over
Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
 
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: Games and More
Links for the day
Links 01/04/2025: Apple Fined $162M for Privacy Abuses, Disinformation Online a Growing Concern
Links for the day
Newer Press Reports Confirm That Microsoft Shuts Down 'Hey Hi' (AI) Labs Despite All the Hype
The "hey hi" (AI) bubble is not sustainable
Links 01/04/2025: Mass Layoffs at Eidos and "Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers" (Demand Lacking); "Racist and Sexist" Slop From Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: XKCDpunk and worldclock.py
Links for the day
50 Years of Sabotage and a Gut Punch to Computer Science (and Science in General)
Will we get back to science-based computing rather than cult-like following?
3 Months in 2025, 4 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Now Offices Shut Down Permanently
"A recent visit by the South China Morning Post confirmed that the office was dark, unoccupied, and had its logo removed."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 31, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 31, 2025
Links 31/03/2025: China Tensions, Bombs Falling in Myanmar After Earthquake
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: Falling Out of Love With Tech, Sunsetting openSNP
Links for the day
R.T.O. at IBM in Texas and Atlanta (State of Georgia) Expected as "Soft Layoffs" Catalyst This Coming Year
It also sounds like more IBM layoffs are in the making
Law Firms Can Also Lose Their Licence for Clearly Misusing It
The bottom line is, never made the false assumption that because you can pile up SLAPPs in a docket you will not suffer from bad reputation or even get disbarred
Link between institutional abuse, Swiss jurists, Debianism and FSFE
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
LLM Slop Piggybacking News About GNU/Linux and Distorting It
new examples
Links 31/03/2025: Press and Democracy Under Further Attacks in the US, Attitudes Towards Slop Sour
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: The OSI Does Not Respect Anybody's Privacy
The surveillance mafia that bans dissent or key people (even co-founders) with dissenting views
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: More X-Filesposting and Dreaming in Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 30, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 30, 2025
Links 30/03/2025: Security Breaches, Crackdowns on Dissent/Rival Politicians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: London Soundtrack Festival, Superbloom, gmiCAPTCHA
Links for the day
Phasing Out Vista 10 in Nations Where ~90% of Windows Users Still Rely on It
Recipe for another Microsoft disaster
The Cost of Pursuing the Much-Needed Reform/Shield Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
The LLM Bubble is About to Implode, Gimmicks and Financial Shell Games Cannot Prevent That, Only Delay It
To inflate the bubble MElon is now doing the classic trick of buying from oneself for a fictional value
Links 30/03/2025: Contagious Ideas, Signal Leak, and Squashing Lousy Patents
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: "Quantum Randomness" and "F-1 Visa Revoked" in US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: US as a Threat, Returning to the WWW
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOA, Turkey Arrested Many Journalists
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 29, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 29, 2025