Posted in Boycott Novell at 10:07 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GPLv3: not only because 3 > 2
You can just about visualise a nice linear curve going through the pace of growth chart of GPLv3, as seen in Palamida’s latest report.
Our LGPL v3 count has increased by 1 project, bringing the current count to 95 LGPL v3 projects. The GPL v2 or later list has also passed a large milestone of 6000 GPL v2 or later projects. Over the last week, 76 new GPL v2 or later projects have been added, bringing the count to 6034 GPL v2 or later projects.
It looks like GPLv3 is a force to be reckoned with. Sun seems to be happy with it and the same goes for other large companies.
The live version of openSUSE 10.3 is now available as a GNOME or KDE CD. Both contain the same software as the 1 CD installation versions would provide you with, but as a live version.
A live CD of a late test build was actually made available as well. That was about a month ago, but the one above is the latest and final.
The openSUSE board has been setup to lead the overall project. The board will: act as a central point of contact, help resolve conflicts, communicate community interests to Novell, facilitate communication with all areas of the community, and facilitate decision making processes where needed.
Francis is there as well, so “well done” in case he read this.
The Guiding Principles, which some liked and some just ridiculed when it was initially proposed in the mailing lists, is finally taking effect.
It’s official: the openSUSE project Guiding Principles are now in force. The Guiding Principles are a framework for the project and give everyone a clear view of who we are, what we stand for, what the project wants and how it works.
We wish to thank Simplix for an incoming link from the blogroll. Among the sites recommended, however, you’ll find us listed as an “FSF Campaign”. We are not by any means associated with any site, company, non-profit/charity or campaign for that matter. This site is a completely independent project which was launched by Shane at the heat of the moment. Although the topics we cover may at times have parallels and intersections with other sites, such as Novell-critical campaigns and maybe even Groklaw, there’s no connection at all.
“We are not by any means associated with any site, company, non-profit/charity or campaign for that matter.”We are not an FSF campaign and presenting us in this way would lead to trouble not just for us, but also to others, such as the FSF. I am not even a member of the FSF, for what it’s worth.
What’s next? Journalists publishing ‘placements’ on behalf of SCO where they argue that PJ is (1) man who (2) does not actually exist and (3) works for IBM? Where are those associations coming from? Is it an impression given or simply a case of wishful thinking?
Finally. We have yet an argument which intersects with another that we frequently cover. XenSource was snatched along with Novell’s direction in order to work in isolation for virtualisation that favours Windows.
XenSource has worked closely with Red Hat and Novell to integrate Xen into their latest Linux distributions and is collborating closely with Microsoft on its implementation of Xen, dubbed Viridian, for Windows Server 2008. Citrix does not own an operating system but sells a platform that offers desktop and application virtualization, and now server virtualization.
“Xen and Novell were well paid and they now please Microsoft and help its fight against VMWare.”You can hopefully see that Xen is in some sense converging with Viridian under the new Citrix/Microsoft regime [1, 2, 3, 4]. As we emphasised in the past, Ron Hovsepian envisions a future where Linux is only run as a guest atop Windows in the datacentre [1, 2, 4]. Also consider as an example yesterday’s news about patents and licensing (anti-GPL venom) in Microsoft’s Linux virtualisation and the Vista/Longhorn discriminatory EULA.
This comes at a very crucial time because virtualisation is very quickly made more popular and as VMWare skyrockets, Microsoft is left further behind. Here is a fragment from the report about VMware posting a 90% revenue jump.
Microsoft has in recent months attempted to curtail VMware’s stance as market leader in the field of software virtualisation by buddying up with Citrix and Novell.
Xen and Novell were well paid and they now please Microsoft and help its fight against VMWare. They are both pawns in a game dominated by kings and queens. Viridian is well behind and Microsoft knows that it needs to recruit other companies to beat VMWare. Ironically, even open source and Linux companies are now helping Microsoft beat VMWare, which is rather Linux-oriented (VMWare even uses a hacked 2.4 Linux kernel in one of its products). Also, ironically, Xen and Novell used to actually compete against Microsoft, not help it.
Linux vendors will be unable to license Microsoft’s interoperability patents under the terms that were mandated by the European Commission, open source legal experts argue.
It is claimed that the the terms are incompatible with the General Public Licence (GPL), the licence that governs the Linux operating system.
I could feel it in my bones: the great victory of the EU over MS is a sham. Here’s why.
Reuters present Samba’s side which, despite some setbacks, has some strengths.
Samba is a non-profit organisation so a lack of profits could not kill it, making it the last real competitor standing.
Note, however, that by setting the terms as Microsoft did, it basically arranged the’ killing’ of the “the last real competitor standing.” By spreading money around it is knocking Sun Microsystems and Novell off the case it can then fight even against Free software in total isolation. This connects very nicely with the recent Samba interview, whose transcript was put on Groklaw a month ago. Microsoft bought its way, not earned it.
“This is the ‘reward’ which Microsoft receives for breaking standards.”What made this whole situation utterly disturbing is that Microsoft had corrupted standards deliberately. What did it receive in return? Or rather — what did the consumer receive in return?
Now, having faced a company that corrupted the standards, everyone must be assimilated while relying on reverse engineers such as the Samba team. At the same time, money needs to be spent on patents (if not documentation as well).
This is the ‘reward’ which Microsoft receives for breaking standards. It not only elevates revenue, but it also saturates presence (monopoly). It does not get any more outrageous than this.
Here is what Novell had to say about Microsoft’s latest attempt to pretend to have ‘opened up’.
“The majority of our customers have mixed-source environments, and they want their platform vendors to make things work together,” said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager, Open Platform Solutions at Novell. “That’s why we entered into a technical collaboration agreement with Microsoft. As a result, Novell is the first vendor to develop and ship technology that will allow a paravirtualized Windows Server 2008 to be hosted as a guest on the Xen hypervisor. Microsoft’s decision to put the hypercall API under their Open Specifications Promise will make it even easier for Novell, our customers and partners, and the entire open source community to develop high-quality virtualization solutions that deliver true interoperability between Windows and Linux.”
Did you spot that bit about “hypercall API” and “Open Specifications”? Guess what? As usual, it contains anti-GPL poison. It is the old trick that involved licensing, which is part of the plan to block those that do not comply with Microsoft’s rules and assimilate.
This one particular issue was not entirely overlooked by Joe Wilcox over at Microsoft Watch.
Microsoft’s decision to license the hypercall API is the right call, although some pundits and competitors might balk at the licensing scheme.
If you think it’s just this hypercall, then think again. Reuters has just published a detailed list of Microsoft patented protocols, which brings back to mind the terms of the agreement in Europe [1, 2].
Microsoft will release interconnection information — called protocols — which rival servers need in order to work smoothly with Microsoft Windows desktops.
It is worth repeating the key argument that Microsoft wants to charge money for standard protocols which is deliberately ‘extended’ with the sole intention of breaking compatibility. It wishes to be rewarded for abuse of standards and sabotage of intercommunication among servers.
While Red Hat welcomed Microsoft’s recent decision to comply with the European Court of First Instance’s antitrust ruling, Michael Cunningham, general counsel for Red Hat, stated that the company was still concerned about Microsoft’s patent model.
…Not exactly a patent Armageddon, but what makes this violent advertising an excellent example is the fact that, unlike cold wars, no real weapons are involved (only junk patents).
It can hopefully be understood how this relates to a patent maze that involved many parties such as OIN (IBM, Oracle, Google, etc.), incognito patent trolls, Novell, and Microsoft.
This commercial led to a big storm in the media when children at a school mimicked it (used it as an example). This could end up deadly because any fake game can be seen as real from afar.
Update (26/11/2007): the video above has been removed. Here is a link that works with an embedment (streaming Flash) below.
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