09.19.07
Posted in GNU/Linux, Linspire, Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, UNIX at 8:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
or “Why Mark Shuttleworth doesn’t denounce the deal as often as he used to”
A week and a half ago, an interview reminded us that there remains high-level opposition (coming from prominent figures) to the Novell/Microsoft deal. Mark Shuttleworth, having already invited OpenSUSE developers to join his team last year, insists that deals with Microsoft, including Novell’s, are harmful. They are indeed; not only to Linux as a whole, but also to individual Linux distributors that “sell out”, to borrow PJ’s phrase.
“…there are many agendas to consider (AMD/ATI drivers, Mono, OpenOffice, SCO litigation, et cetera).”I try hard to keep my personal stories out of this Web site (keeping it more informative than egocentric), but this time I cannot help it. Some months ago we collected and prepared questions for an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, but since then he seems to have changed his mind, I would guess because of some undeserved infamy of this Web site (although the interview was bound to be published elsewhere, by a professional publisher whom I work for). I only received what seemed like an excuse a few days ago, after some promises.
I tried to inquire through a common friend. I wanted to find out if Mark Shuttleworth has said anything about Novell or about us. I was told (not for certain) that “he said before that he doesn’t like the Novell deal, but he may have changed his mind.” This seems unlikely given the recent interview which is cited at the top.
The bottom line is this: I do not want him to be grumpy about this Web site. There is no reason for this to be the case, either. I know he’s a friend of Matt Asay, whose opinions about Novell align with mine. Matt is a former Novell employee and he recently got slagged off by Novell’s Bruce Lowry for citing us. Yes, Novell likes to control what bloggers say about the company.
SCO (now to be spelled “$ < 0″) tried this too and it quite clearly backfired. Censorships and PR spin do not work because they lead to backlash. For entertainment purposes only, FUDMeister McBride is shown preaching lies in the image on the left. We will not be seeing or hearing much from him next year.
Like PJ (Groklaw) [2], Mark dislikes the Novell deal, but he has to act nice to them because there are many agendas to consider (AMD/ATI drivers, Mono, OpenOffice, SCO litigation, et cetera). Does that mean that, as long as Novell holds some key elements of Linux, other distributors will refuse to speak against the deal? Does this mean that, only when pressured by Microsoft or the blogsphere will Mandriva’s CEO openly express his opinion?
It’s hard to be liked by everyone when you have a divisive, controversial, or even unpopular opinion. Actually, it’s more of an interpretation, not an opinion. I firmly believe in everything I write and I have provided over a thousand auxiliary references to support what I write here. It can be defended for being factual unless we post explicit corrections, which we sometimes do (see this recent example).
If some people or sites became wary of and upset about this Web site, then so be it. OpenSUSE might be hostile towards Groklaw and the FSF as well. Nothing is perfect. But if nobody is willing to present the unpopular side of the story, who will?
“They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round”
– From the song “They All Laughed”
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in GNU/Linux, Law, Novell, OpenSUSE at 4:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
It continues to seem as though various members of the OpenSUSE community have an allergy for the FSF, the GNU GPLv3, and… even Groklaw.
One prominent person from the OpenSUSE forums (a moderator too) is targeting the credibility Pamela Jones’ analysis. Needless to say, despite Novell’s contribution to SCO’s demise, she does not like the deal with Microsoft. She never did and she has protested from the very start when she posted with the headline “Novell Sells Out”.
We have already brought to OpenSUSE’s attention the dissection of the deal and its effects on the community, which now seems to be in a state of denial.
[elsewhere:] “Still, I could be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt. I can’t bring myself to search through Groklaw looking for the info”
[...]
[Wilson Phillips:] “I fully understand the Groklaw thing. I try to stay as far away from that site as possible”
Here is what these folks are trying to escape: What Does MS Want? — Brains for Sale?
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Novell, SCO, SUN, UNIX at 3:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
SCO is at Novell’s mercy at the moment. Watch the most recent disclosures from SCO.
The rulings may also cost SCO a lot of money. The court said that SCO would have to pay Novell for past licensing deals it had struck with Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft. This could amount more than $30 million, SCO said in its SEC filing. That’s more than the $10.4 million in cash now held by SCO.
It remains to see if Novell will ever exploit this ownership in a malicious way. Looking at the long term, Novell could be acquired and be aligned against its current goals. Never say never. Companies change hands and they subsequently change focus
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Europe, FUD, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice at 3:30 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The Netherlands for open source and open standards
One of the original articles is in Dutch, so here is what an English-speaking blog had to share:
Frank Heemskerk, Minister of Economic Affairs, announced today that ODF will be the standard for reading, publishing and the exchange of information for all governmental organisations. The deadline is January 2009.
“Some of these nations have adopted strong pro-ODF policies.”This is spectacular news and it would make a nice addition to the Wikipedia article on OpenDocument adoption. Among the countries that are already listed there you have: United States (particularly Massachusetts), United Kingdom (with emphasis on Bristol City Council), Belgium, Finland, Slovakia, Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, and Vietnam. Some of these nations have adopted strong pro-ODF policies.
Elsewhere in the news you’ll find articles about the rise of Microsoft Office competitors, including OpenOffice, Google Apps, IBM’s Lotus Symphony, and Zimbra, which has just been acquired by Yahoo. Here are some headlines from yesterday:
It is worth stressing that Google’s Web-based products are increasingly becoming a viable alternative to desktop-bound office suites. The company that suffers the most is Microsoft, so it’s hardly surprising that it has begun a FUD campaign. That’s just how Microsoft handles competitive threats.
Microsoft is launching an anti-Google propaganda campaign.
Here are some more details:
This, of course, brought Google even closer to rivaling Microsoft’s Office suite, which has now spurred a reaction from the Redmond software giant.
No, its not new software or updates for the popular productivity suite, but rather Microsoft’s own reasoning on why businesses should NOT use Google Apps.
We spotted this type of FUD earlier on [1, 2, 3, 4], amid the OOXML/ISO fiasco. A question has also just been raised to ask why Microsoft Office escaped Europe’s wrath.
Over the past decade, government sanctions and monitoring efforts on both sides of the pond have helped level the playing field for competitors, allowing Linux, for example, to gain significant market share in the server operating system software market and Firefox to achieve respectable share of the web browser market against Microsoft’s once ubiquitous Internet Explorer.
How did Office get left out of the equation?
Keen observation there.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Free/Libre Software, Interview, Microsoft, Novell at 1:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Here is a new short interview which explains the problem at hand rather well. It does not actually say whether Collabnet supports the deal or not, but it explains the reason for complications.
SDA: What are your comments on the Microsoft-Novell deal? How will that affect the open source world?
Collabnet: My thinking is the deals can happen at high level corporations and the open source movement is totally different. Developers and individual contributors taking control of the development of software and that is very different from the high level negotiations.
It is possible for those who negotiate not to get their suppliers in trouble. As we have learned, Novell changed the rules that apply to OpenSUSE developers. Unlike other Linux companies, Novell chose a controversial route.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Content is available under CC-BY-SA