In previous coverage of the latest development [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13], we stressed that Novell is getting closer to Microsoft and more hostile towards other GNU/Linux vendors.
“Novell has been living in Red Hat's shadow for a long time.”Novell has been living in Red Hat's shadow for a long time. Now it finds shelter in Microsoft's belly pouch where it's whispering "attack Red Hat". Novell has, essentially, sidled with a bully to scare all those other kids in the playground.
Despite a lot of this, Novell keeps losing prospective customers to Red Hat based on merit and reputation alone. Here is a new example, as told by a $3-billion-dollar company.
When Sabre began to move from proprietary systems, the company evaluated other open source operating systems including Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise but concluded that Novell was not as "mature" or respected as it is today and decided Red Hat was a more "proven" option, he said.
Well, some people don't listen to Julie Bort's advice. At Microsoft Subnet, she wrote, "At this point in the game, Microsoft should really come clean with a statement that rescinds its Linux/patent/suing threat altogether."
Good idea, but no such luck. This morning's press release haul brings "Microsoft and Novell Expand Successful Interoperability Relationship," which says,
"Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. are announcing an incremental investment in their relationship to meet accelerating customer demand for their business model solution, which is designed to build a bridge between open source and proprietary software to deliver interoperability and intellectual property (IP) peace of mind for organizations operating mixed-source IT environments."
Intellectual property peace of mind. Novell has a solid Linux, and punches above its weight in kernel contributions, so why does the marketing strategy so often come down to whining, "buy from us instead of Red Hat, or Microsoft will sue you?"
Myself, I think that virtualisation and document interchange are multi-platform by definition, so how much work is there really in those areas?
So much for the "open" protocols MS published if they require special collaboration.
I say, good job at parroting Microsoft's email, sugar-coating this alliance that is going nowhere with either Linux or Windows users. Businesses are not looking to buy into Novell's Microsoft licensing backdoors either.
Simply put, Novell is being paid by Microsoft to support MS-OOXML. That's all that's come out of this alliance -- press releases! And has anyone used Novell's version of OpenOffice? It honestly sucks.
Lastly, please, please name names of anyone you know who is exchanging MS-OOXML documents. They're not online, that's for sure. OpenOffice would be smart not to waste their time.
Build bridges, not toll roads.
Through closed standards, aggressive patent FUD, and proprietary Office file formats and SharePoint repository, Microsoft has effectively declared war on the very idea of "breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting"...unless you happen to be using 100 percent of Microsoft's software to do the job.
One of the biggest trends to knock down barriers to true interoperability has been open source and the open standards it espouses, yet Microsoft has sought to impose a patent toll on open source. For those interested in connecting with Microsoft's technology, Microsoft is glad to oblige, but only on its terms, with Microsoft firmly in control. Open source, however, believes in a very different kind of interoperability.
Comments
pcole
2008-08-23 16:15:22
Because of the downturn in the economy, consumers are looking at "the most bang for the buck", they're asking why so many expensive third party programs to get an usable desktop in place. The consumer space is all "sewn up"; so they think.
Now MS is awarded the "PgUp-PgDn" patent. Isn't it amazing how the worm turns. It's only going to be seen as what it is: "IT-Capone"
MonoHater
2008-08-23 20:30:47
BTW, which sites are built with DekiWiki? Any way to tell? I want to avoid them. Wikipedia isn't one, is it?
Roy Schestowitz
2008-08-23 20:43:40
From http://swik.net/MindTouch :
Redmond Refugees Driving Open Source
Last week Black Duck Software run by a former Microsoft employee, Doug Levin, acquired Koders an open source repository and search engine. Likewise Software, the maker of an open source unified authentication product was started by some ex-Microsoft employees. Starting as a proprietary software maker they eventually moved to a open source development model and have gotten involved with the popular open source Samba project. Finally, MindTouch an open source wiki developer is run by ex-Microsoft employees and has seen great success with their open source project. All the companies mentioned above are run by ex-Micrsoft employees and all seem to be having decent success in open source. Deki Wiki and Application Collaboration
One of my favorite open source projects is Deki Wiki by MindTouch. The product solves many of the same problems as Microsoft Sharepoint. More so than Sharepoint, DekiWiki extends its collaboration beyond people to the application layer. Rather than striving to be an all-in-one solution Deki Wiki boasts a robust web services API that allows for integration between other applications. Already Deki Wiki supports authentication via LDAP and Active Directory as well as authentication systems from popular open source content management systems like Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla!.
Also see:
http://port25.technet.com/archive/2007/11/27/mindtouch-dekiwiki-cross-platform-open-source-wiki-platform.aspx
MonoHater
2008-08-23 20:49:01
Btw, any comment on developer.mozilla.org?
MonoHater
2008-08-23 20:50:57
Argh!
Roy Schestowitz
2008-08-23 21:34:22
BTW, see http://boycottnovell.com/2008/08/16/douglas-levin-quits/