09.14.07
Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Patents, SCO, UNIX at 10:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Final destination for litigious abusers
It’s “Linux-mob justice” and “it’s not over,” the SCO sidlers yelled, but no… they were all wrong. The company that has given Linux legal headaches with its bogus allegations is now officially down.
SCO Group Inc., the embattled software company best known for litigation targeting distributors of open-source, Linux software, said Friday it has filed for bankruptcy.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Now, however, attention should be paid to the next barrier, which comes from a company that owns the smiley. Some of those who do not seem to understand Free software have finally got around to admitting that software patents are the problem, not the GNU GPLv3, which strives to address this problem (among several others).
Anyway, I think Stallman’s ideas, though at times inflammatory, are definitely worth a few minutes, perhaps while you put those finishing touches on your “Mouse Pad for Lefties” patent submission.
As stated yesterday, all patent FUD from Microsoft can be immediately ignored, at least in some parts of the world where the claims needn’t even be tested in court (or outside it).
It is a good day for Linux. Darl McBride (pictured on the right) will have only fantasies left because SCO acknowledges that the toast is done.
Who’s hungry?
Update: things has just gotten even worse for SCO. Dale Kimball had their appeal for reconsideration rejected.
When it rains, it pours, they say. First, SCO files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and now on the same day Judge Dale Kimball has denied SCO’s Motion for Reconsideration or Clarification of the August 10, 2007 Order.
SVJN, who was probably unaware of this latest developments at the time, had the following to say:
What I really expect to happen is for SCO to go out of business sometime in the next year.
Time for SCO customer to migrate to Linux, as long as it’s not from Novell, Turbolinux, Linspire, or Xandros.
Recent articles to remember:
According to the Declaration, Richard Emerson was not the only Microsoft employee Goldfarb was dealing with in connection with the BayStar investment in SCO. He mentions by name two others, from two other departments.
There is a lot more evidence that teaches us about the SCO-Microsoft connection.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Identity Management, Marketing, Novell, OpenSUSE, Virtualisation at 8:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
OpenSUSE
As usual, we’ll begin with Novell’s darling, the OpenSUSE project. The project’s site features a new interview with one member of this community, Edith Parzefall. The site has also posted some sneak peeks at KDE 4 on the latest build of OpenSUSE.
KDE 3 will still be the default KDE session for openSUSE 10.3, but KDE 4 will be making its way in steadily.
As always, TuxMachines is quick to test-drive and post a report about the latest test version, beta 3.
It was revealed by beineri that “openSUSE 10.3 [will] not shipping KDE 4.0 as default KDE desktop” as previously hoped. This is probably due to the updated release schedule of KDE 4. I’m sure everyone’s heard by now that KDE 4 won’t be finalized until just before Christmas. They will still probably include the latest developmental release at least on mirrors.
Press Releases
Novell has had quite a few of those. Here are just a couple whose significance is not mentioned later in this weekly report because they are not (or barely) related to Linux and open source.
Novell SecureLogin Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant for Enterprise Single Sign-On
Novell today announced it has been positioned in the leaders quadrant of Gartner, Inc.’s, “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Single Sign-On, 2007″ by Gregg Kreizman, August 30, 2007. Novell(R) SecureLogin, the company’s single sign-on solution, helps organizations manage the complicated process of providing users with access to company networks and resources. SecureLogin eliminates the need for users to manage multiple passwords, allowing enterprise customers to improve network security and better automate business processes to deliver bottom-line savings.
New York City Transit Boosts Network Security, Streamlines Information Access with Novell Identity Manager
North America’s largest transportation agency, New York City Transit, has turned to Novell for improved security and management of its identity infrastructure and network access. With the world’s largest fleet of subway cars and public buses, NYC Transit transports more than 7 million people each day. NYC Transit is using Novell® identity and security management solutions to centralize and automate its identity infrastructure for 49,000 staff members across 500 locations, ensuring timely and secure employee access to network resources.
Deals
Novell celebrated another coupon deal, which isn’t exactly the type of things we love.
For Siemens, the agreement will support the Siemens operating company through the work of the ISEC subsidiary of Siemens Enterprise Communications, which is responsible for customer software application development and management worldwide. Due to the large quantity of current and legacy Linux applications in customer environments, Siemens has significant need for Windows and Linux platform compatibility.
Novell released its quarterly report a week ago and its income statement was made available a few days ago.
Technical Collaborations
Novell has been (and will be) working with AMD on their open source drivers.
The new open-source driver that’s being written so far by Novell should be released next week.
Novell works with VMWare on further refinements to SUSE performance on the hypervisor.
To deliver this improved performance, Novell modified the SUSE Linux Enterprise kernel to support the VMware Virtual Machine Interface (VMI), a communication mechanism between the guest operating system and hypervisor that simplifies the task of virtualization and makes Linux a more efficient guest operating system when running in VMware environments.
Support and Supply
Bruce Lowry was pleased to talk about a support centre’s certification.
Novell’s European Support Center, the nexus of Novell’s technical support operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has just achieved certification under the prestigious Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Support and Field standards.
ModusLink was also pleased to have received an award from Novell.
ModusLink’s Kildare, Ireland Solution Center received the honor due to its consistently outstanding performance in facilitating Novell’s complex global supply chain with fulfillment, kitting and vendor-managed inventory (VMI) processes during the last two years.
Miscellaneous Stories
There’s some minor news from a company that is accociated with Ray Noorda.
Lindon, Utah-based Center 7, a provider of hosted IT services, said Monday that it has added former Forum Systems CEO Wes Swenson to its advisory board. Center 7 said that it is venture backed by Canopy Ventures. Center 7 said that Swenson will advise its CEO, Nathan Hatch, on financial matters, strategic and tactical direction and business development for the firm. Canopy Ventures is the venture capital arm of Ray Noorda, founder of Novell.
posted on Monday, September 10, 2007
Novell’s Orchestrator gets a quick mention in a list of VM lifecycle management tools.
VMware is offering VirtualCenter and Lab Manager, and Novell has Zenworks Orchestrator, VM Builder and VM Warehouse. There are plenty of others, too.
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Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software, FUD, Law, Microsoft, Patents at 8:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
When all FUD fails, resort to political manipulation
Negative legal perceptions, which were primarily caused by May’s attack, required some clarifications to be made. Here in Britain, a lawyer has just made an obvious statement.
Microsoft’s claims that open-source software infringes its patents do not apply in the UK, according to a top lawyer.
This happens to come at a time when two legal summits are being organised to defend Linux. This was mentioned a few days ago. But why is the UK so worried? According to CBR, the UK public sector still perceives open source as “risky” while ignoring the major dangers of relying on vendor-dependent binaries. As the article states, this is seen as somewhat of a fiasco (we’ll come to more of that in a moment).
“The UK government spends 12.4bn pounds a year on IT. The answer to whether open source can reduce that is clearly, yes,” said Mark Taylor, president of the Open Source Consortium and CEO of Sirius.
We mentioned the British government’s ties with Microsoft before. These links — which require money and employment dynamics to be traced — are becoming harder to hide each day. Mark Taylor can see them. Here is what another Brit, Matt Asay, had to say:
The trainwreck-waiting-to-happen that is UK government IT spending
[...]
The UK, in other words, is a captive of its IT vendors. That is shockingly wrong.
Just as one example, consider the BBC, which continues to tighten its relationship with Microsoft. It does not only affect reporting, but marketing directions as well. This week, even XBox360 seems to have received a form of endorsement from this tax-funded establishment. Only XBox360 owners will be able to access BBC content via their console. It’s by no means surprising if you look at recent events.
Today the BBC made it official — they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With today’s launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.
It was later realised and stated that ex-Softies are now holding positions of power in the BBC, so they essentially send a lot of taxpayers’ money to their former employer. This seems similar to the scenario at XenSource and maybe even Novell.
The great problem with all these ties in Britain is that they leave an entire nation in the Dark Ages of computing and they hurt employment, according to another new article.
The UK’s position as the open source laggard of Europe is preventing the growth of UK software industry and skills, according Alfresco, an open source enterprise content management company.
Matt Aslett, who I believe still reads our Web site, blogged about it a few days ago, just before he told the world about his job change (congrats, Matt).
The debate indicated that risk aversion is preventing the UK public sector from exploiting the benefits of open source, but that UK’s position as the open source laggard of Europe is preventing the growth of UK software industry and skills.
Going back to some older news, there is still hope for the UK, where Free software adoption has been very slow.
There’s been a suggestion of a shift towards open source in the houses of government in the UK recently, with the Conservative Party promising to promote open source if elected and the incumbent Labour Party releasing the code behind its new carbon footprint calculator under the General Public License.
The main barrier to adoption (other than FUD) will remain the sort of “corruption” Larry Lessig recently spoke about.
Yet governments continue to push ahead with this idiot idea — both Britain and Japan for example are considering extending existing terms. Why?
The answer is a kind of corruption of the political process. Or better, a “corruption” of the political process. I don’t mean corruption in the simple sense of bribery. I mean “corruption” in the sense that the system is so queered by the influence of money that it can’t even get an issue as simple and clear as term extension right.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Servers at 6:43 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
It was only a couple of days ago that we mentioned a peer’s warning that Linux is being subverted. We are not the only people out there who understand why Novell is a danger to Linux and free software. There is a followup that expands on this.
There are better, more robust mail systems out there than exchange. So why is Novell trying so hard to tow to Microsoft with its evolution?
[...]
That was just one example and there are many others. The open source world has many better enterprise ready solutions than Microsoft. You just have to know what those alternatives are. There is no need for Linux to conform to Microsoft. Linux needs to be and set the future of computing. Linux needs to be a leader, not a follower. At the moment, due to Microsoft’s manipulations, Linux is turning from a leader to a follower and what is worse. You are letting it!
“It becomes a second-class choice with second-class software…”This is another criticism among many. Novell is bending to the dynamics of things like Silverlight, OOXML, and other Linux-hostile technologies that only enable Microsoft to preserve and extend its grip on industry — from desktops, to servers, to the Internet. These technologies are Trojan horses. Novell, being the second-hand carrier of these technologies (the “Greek bearing gifts”), is itself an embodiment of the Trojan. It deserves to be treated as such.
As indicated above, Linux does not need Exchange; nor does it require OOXML or Silverlight, which Linux needs to combat rather than submissively embrace, until they are platform-neutral (they are not). Here is a new blog item that demonstrates Linux’s strengths.
And – as some commenters on the page there report – syncing calendars with Thunderbird / Google / mobile phone or other devices works flawlessly. The author is using it with his N70 for instance.
It is only one example which does not even take into account Novell’s old Exchange alternatives, at least one of which was ditched after its deal with Microsoft. Coincidence? We never thought so.
By taking the Microsoft route, Novell achieves nothing. It becomes a second-class choice with second-class software that is unable to cope with the latest ‘extension’ Microsoft introduced in its technology. At the end of the day, all it leads to is a migration (back) to Windows.
Those who follow finish last. Don’t let Novell turn Linux as a whole into a follower.
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Posted in America, Europe, GNU/Linux, Interoperability, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat at 6:17 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
…while at the same time eliminating any changes of interoperability with GNU/Linux?
As Shane predicted in 2006 (just weeks after the deal), Microsoft uses Novell as an excuse and a bargaining card for exemptions and mercy from the European Commission. The ruling will come this Monday and Microsoft already sings the tune about his deals with Sun Microsystems and Novell.
Next week’s European antitrust ruling against Microsoft Corp is a legacy of its past behavior, but competitors say the company’s current strategy is a sign of history repeating itself.
[...]
“While there are some companies who will use the press and government processes to advance their interests and invoke their view of competition law, I think we are working quite well with most … firms,” said Dave Heiner, Microsoft deputy general counsel who leads the company’s compliance efforts.
He highlighted the growing ties between his company and old adversaries such as Novell Inc in business software and with Sun Microsystems, which this week said it planned to more fully embrace Windows to run its own computers.
So here you have it. Illustrated above is the impact of Novell’s deal and its ability to make the abuses linger on. Companies like Red Hat are being denied open access to documentation about key protocols. Meanwhile, Novell pays for licenses, engages in exclusionary deals, and lends its hand to a so-called ‘interoperability’ lab (Novell interoperability, not Linux interoperability). Microsoft uses all of this as evidence that it has changed its ways while others clearly beg to differ. From yesterday’s news:
Extension of Microsoft Antitrust Pact Requested
[...]
Before these parties and Microsoft respond, though, they will have a benchmark to guide them: The European Union will announce its Microsoft antitrust decision on Monday.
“Microsoft crashed the party and now receives an award for it.”There is clearly a cascading effect here. The article cited above is about America, not Europe.
Novell makes it hard for the Commission to argue that Microsoft excludes competitors while it continues with its abuses (look no further than the recent OOXML fiasco). As such, even the attitude in America and the regulatory eye there might go missing.
Microsoft crashed the party and now receives an award for it. It sabotages any prospects of fair competition with Linux (other than Novell) while at the same time it earns praises for playing nice with Linux (never mind if it’s only Novell).
Related articles:
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Posted in Courtroom, Intellectual Monopoly, Law, Microsoft, Patents at 1:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
White House Fights Back and Against Patent System Reform
It just doesn’t seem to end. Drug companies and other patent trolls wish to restore the old rules.
A new US law which would reduce the damages to be paid out for patent infringement has been passed by one half of the US legislature. The proposed law was backed by large technology firms and banks but opposed by smaller tech companies and drug companies.
And here is a fine new example of how abuse materialsies.
Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T, Spring, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Viacom, Real, Napster…
….Samsung, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Sandisk sued
A company sued a heap of companies for allegedly infringing patents that cover music management systems.
[...]
Microsoft, for example, is alleged to have used this technology not only in Zune, but in WMP for Windows, Vista and the Xbox 360.
That must be the consequence of permitting software to be patented. According to this new article on women in technology, which by no means makes any statement about gender, things just get worse. Who needs all this paperwork that documents ownership of algorithmic notions?
Qualcomm, which faces an embargo (bad for the consumer), seems to have gotten a selective relief, but how did we all get there in the first place?
Only AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Kyocera and Sanyo Fisher will be allowed to ignore the ban.
More Intrusive Advertisment Patents from Microsoft
Yesterday we mentioned a few mind-boggling patents from Microsoft. Some consumer-hostile and obtrusive methods for delivery of information continue to be patented. Here is the latest.
Microsoft has just published a patent application for advertising triggered by sequences of user actions, which describes how to interrupt game playing, music listening, and photo viewing with pop-up ads (‘the components may be integrated directly into the operating system’).
Here is another older one, which was not mentioned yesterday.
Microsoft has patented the idea of inserting fresh advertisements into old recordings on personal video recorders, to ensure you see today’s ads even if you’re watching a recording from last week.
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