Bonum Certa Men Certa

Still No Commitment to OpenSUSE, Just Proprietary Software From Attachmate

A Microsoft Gold-certified Partner (Attachmate) remains a proprietary software company

Glass



Summary: Microsoft's partner, Attachmate, still refrains from commenting on GNU/Linux efforts that are not being taxed by Microsoft; proprietary products from Novell are seemingly unaffected

TECHRIGHTS returns to its normal schedule after an extended weekend (Bank Holiday in the UK). We have been looking into more Novell news recently, only to find more of the same trends that we discussed earlier this month, namely that staff is leaving and OpenSUSE gets no commitment of substance. The official site speaks of progress, but there is really not much of it except profiles and other more distracting, off-topic bits of news or something on the borderline between SUSE and OpenSUSE (the gap is blurred a bit sometimes). Notice what Attachmate continues to say about SUSE. There is no mention of OpenSUSE, still. The new manager of SUSE expresses commitment without mentioning OpenSUSE even once.



The VAR Guy was particularly curious about Hawn’s views on SUSE Linux. The reason: During Attachmate’s discussions to potentially acquire Novell, SEC filings indicated that the initial dialog did not include buying Novell’s SUSE Linux business. But Hawn says Attachmate was simply reacting to Novell’s initial strategy — which involved potentially selling Novell’s assets in pieces to multiple bidders. Says Hawn: “Our desire from the outset was, if possible, to acquire the whole company.”


Sascha Manns continues to deliver some news while the OpenSUSE brand gets weakened for the following reason: "It became quickly apparent to me that while the service was called “openSUSE Build Service” the name didn’t give enough due credit. The build service’s capabilities meant so much more than simply creating a tool for the openSUSE distribution."

This has not been a problem for over a year, has it? Why it is being renamed at such a late stage? Not a healthy sign for this trademark.What is Attachmate going to do?

Novell is generally no more (as an independent company). Attachmate has shelved its pertinent part where it saw that as suitable and threw the rest -- including Mono -- out. Nonetheless, some YouTube accounts continue to spew out Novell promotion, not just SUSE promotion which is at least a live product.

Parts of Novell that are still being advertised are characteristically proprietary, Vibe for example [1, 2, 3]. These three video and about a dozen more from "Novelldemo" are the type of stuff coming from Novell, which still sells and promotes proprietary software [1, 2, 3, 4]. SUSE for Novell is a carrier with which to sell Novell's proprietary addons, not just proprietary software from third parties (largely a strategy at Red Hat and Canonical).

Speaking of SUSE, there is this new Dell video about its Novell alliance with Microsoft. It does not mention patents or any sneaky language like that and we have wondered about it for almost 4 years.



Remember that buying SUSE means paying Microsoft. It means paying a lot more than HTC pays Microsoft for Android, perhaps ten times as much.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
 
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol