Novell has lost their Geek Cred, they sold out, even Credit Suisse knows it. Eben Moglen and the Free Software Foundation are going to specifically design the GPL3 to disallow discriminatory deals such as the one that Novell has entered into with Microsoft.



Under Microsofts Community Commitment terms, the only approved channel for code redistribution is OpenSuSE.org, and then only if it is accepted into a full SuSE product. Essentially, they feel that the compulsion to code is so great that the community will be forced to enhance Novell's increasingly proprietary and encumbered Linux.

It is time for the OpenSuSE community to speak out, or more specifically - walk out. Let Novell know that they will be responsible for maintaining their own forks (or they can always get help from MS, they write decent code) from here on in.

Participate in the discussion for GPL3, and prepare to implement it. For many projects, this may require an audit to identify code which cannot be relicensed and perhaps replaced, but maybe that is Microsoft's plan - to slow down OSS development a few years and let Vista catch up. In any event, let us make sure that GPL3 reaffirms our commitment to Freedom.

It is already apparent that Microsoft is succeeding in fragmenting the community, and it is because Novell agreed to this short-sighted, self-serving deal. Because Novell has decided to act in its own best interests, counter to the espoused principles of the very people who write the software the distribute, they must be excommunicated.

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

History shows us what happens to those who partner with Microsoft.