Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell is Knowingly Seeding GNU/Linux, MeeGo and Android With Microsoft Patents

More Interop



Summary: Another look at the negative effects of Novell not only on GNU/Linux desktops but also phones and tablets running Linux, the kernel

Whatever Novell is up to at the moment involves a good (or bad) deal of Mono. Pinta [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] is just one example of this trend as it continues to be developed while the SD Times, which promotes .NET and Mono quite regularly (even shamelessly) and gets named for it, is giving Mono the lip service Novell craves so much (rebuttal here). According to the comments in Linux Today, people do not welcome the Mono applications that Novell has been busy putting inside MeeGo [1, 2, 3]. SUSE MeeGo is expected within a year, but it is not clear what will happen to SUSE when Novell goes to auction. Perhaps it will be sold as a separate asset.



Novell have today announced their intention to release SUSE MeeGo as a fully supported netbook operating system. Novell expects their new OS, which is built on the codestream from the MeeGO Project established by a collaboration between Intel and Nokia, to be pre-installed on a wide variety of devices from OEMS in the next twelve months.

[...]

As you may be aware, SUSE MeeGo actually builds on an already longstanding relationship between Novell and Intel, which initially encouraged OEMs and ODMs to adopt Moblin. That initial effort was met with reasonable success with partners including Samsung and MSI having already shipped netbooks and other mobile devices with Moblin on board. Here’s hoping they can go even further with MeeGo, a project we at Linux User & Developer have high hopes for during the next round of technology and design refreshes.


Samsung is mentioned there too. More on SUSE MeeGo (somewhat negative):

Even so, a bum note sounds when you start to bolt onto that open source, free software model a commercially developed version of Linux for netbooks. The thought was prompted by the arrival of a press release this morning from Novell, announcing that: "it will release SUSE(R) MeeGo as a fully supported operating system for netbooks."

Novell carries on: "SUSE MeeGo is built on the codestream from the MeeGo Project, the new Linux-based operating system established by Intel and Nokia".


As The Register points out, Novell was also working closely with Moblin.

Novell will put MeeGo on top of SUSE Linux, and push it out to notebook and netbook manufacturers as an alternative to desktop operating systems, just as it did with Moblin. So not a radical change, really.


More new coverage of SUSE MeeGo can be found in:



Here is an interview with Novell's Markus Rex. He has just told the Asian press about Mono software in MeeGo (he calls that ".NET applications"):

Novell also has an initiative called Mono, which allows developers to run .NET applications on Linux and the iPhone. Mono is also included in MeeGo so developers can create .NET applications for MeeGo in a seamless fashion.


Isn't that just wonderful? Now we can all use .NET even on GNU/Linux. And Microsoft wants to claim a share of the money earned (MeeGo includes Banshee, which falls outside the MCP).

Microsoft/Novell may be trying to get a grip on MeeGo. One can ignore or actually do something about it. Groklaw has raised this MeeGo issue, but it didn't do enough to counter this. The last time it tried, Mono bullies attacked Groklaw [1, 2]. Shooting the messenger much?

A year ago we wrote about Novell moving some of is SUSE workforce to Taiwan and today we see this materialising [1, 2].

US-based Novell on June 1 announced it will offer Suse MeeGo specifically for use in netbooks and other types of mobile devices and will establish an OpenLabs in Taiwan to cooperate with local makers to promote MeeGo and provide related R&D support.


Taiwan offshoring. June 1st. Also in the news on almost the very same day:



Here is the press release and BusinessWeek coverage that mentions patents.

Microsoft, which has worked with Taiwanese companies for 20-years, will license patents from its technology portfolio and share its software expertise with companies, academia and research institutes in Taiwan to develop connected devices and cloud data centers, the company said in a statement.


Taiwan is the home of HTC, which Microsoft recently extorted with no disclosure of actual patents. BusinessWeek has another interesting new article:

Manufacturers whose phones are powered by Google's (GOOG) Android software have been hit hard by patent battles. (Google itself has not been sued.) Android handsets accounted for 28 percent of U.S. smartphone sales in the first quarter, vs. Apple's 21 percent, according to NPD Group. Apple has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, saying several HTC Android phones infringe on its patents. It is also suing HTC in federal court in Delaware. Both companies declined to comment.

Licensing fees now represent less than 10 percent of smartphones' production costs. Yet one Android handset maker has already budgeted for its patent royalty payments to double next year, says an executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. One beneficiary may be Microsoft, which has blanketed the industry with letters demanding royalties for technologies such as touchscreen menus.


This suggests that Microsoft used "touchscreen menus" as one of the patents. Does that apply to HTC?

Earlier on we also mentioned Tuxera, which currently helps Microsoft tax both Android and Linux, according to a new press release. There are mostly negative comments regarding this press release which we mentioned the other day.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Video] Richard Stallman's Talk in Sweden, Attended by Nearly 700 People, is Now Online
The Web page is in Swedish, but the talk is in English
 
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: "The Highest Leader of The Global Civil Society Community", SSL Certificates Causing Bitrot
Links for the day
Links 25/10/2025: Target Layoffs and "Shutdown Sparks 85% Increase in US Government Cyberattacks"
Links for the day
"Big Data" Was a Big Lie
Remember "Big Data"? Remember "Data Scientists"...?
statCounter Has Been Broken for a Long Time
Considering the huge proportion of Web requests that come from LLM bots (more so this past year or two), statCounter may struggle to justify the operating costs
Techrights Anniversary Party on November 7th
Let us know if you need any accommodation-related arrangements
Trends That Must Alarm Microsoft and Mozilla
Expect Firefox to no longer be supported by various sites in the US
Why Microsoft Became the Layoffs Leader
The corporate media is projecting or signalling its own dishonesty when it tells us that Microsoft is a very "valuable" company while the data shows Microsoft is also a "market leader" in layoffs
Speaking for Ourselves and Letting the Facts Speak for Themselves
we've already published over 50,000 pages
For Second Time in a Day The Register MS Takes Money From Private Companies to Sell a Ponzi Scheme
Do not have empathy for those who have zero empathy towards you
IBM is Misleading IBM Shareholders
IBM is still all about vapourware and buzzwords
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 24, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 24, 2025
The Serial Slopper Starts Up - or Restarts - His Plagiarism Machine (LLMs)
Serial Sloppers like these don't belong in news sites. That's why he got sacked by BetaNews.
Links 24/10/2025: Esperanto Music History, Anxiety, and New Portals
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com, Linux Journal, and Pet Slopfarms of Google News
Why does Google News still advance these fake sites to the top of search results?
Links 24/10/2025: Inequality Grows, Billion-Dollar Scam Center Industry
Links for the day
Links 24/10/2025: "Independent Media in Cambodia is Collapsing" and Serious F5 Breach
Links for the day
Coping With the Site Going More Mainstream
Fame is no laughing matter
They Never 'Put Down' Corporations
There are "pests" that are traded in Wall Street
21 Pages in Less Than 7 Hours is No Joking Matter
We've become a lot more effective and efficient
Correct Information is a Valued Asset in the Age of Slopfarms and Public Relations (PR) or Spin
Publishing suppressed facts is never easy
The Register MS Continues to Bag Money to Promote a Ponzi Scheme, Even Money From China
Today in the front page
analytics.usa.gov: The Only Supported Version of Windows (This Past Week) is Only Used by About 13.9% of People in the US, the Home Base of Windows
Even Vista 7 is still used more
Rust is Very Secure
If only Rust itself is secure
Who Will be Held Accountable for Breaking Ubuntu by Imposing Rust on Otherwise-Functional Programs, in Effect Replacing GNU With Proprietary Microsoft (GitHub)?
they're practical people who merely point out that a bunch of buffoons not only ruin Ubuntu but also every future distro based on Ubuntu
Generation Chaff - Phase VIII: In Summary
Like "Science" with a capital "S", what we see here commercial interests usurping everything
Generation Chaff - Phase VII: Curtailing Alternative Media
There was always an obligation - a collective duty of sorts - to uphold independent journalism
Generation Chaff - Phase VI: Centralisation of Information (X, Cheetok/Fentanylware)
Would you trust information when controlled by such people?
Generation Chaff - Phase V: Censorship of Dissent (Painted as Harassment or Terrorism)
Censorship is all around us now
Generation Chaff - Phase IV: Apps Only Few Companies Decide On
Tools are being collectively confiscated, under the premise or false prospect of "security"
Generation Chaff - Phase III: Slop and Plagiarism
A lot of the current so-called 'economy' is built upon false valuations
Generation Chaff - Phase II: "Cloud", Blockchains and Other Hype
For those of us who turned down those propositions there was a struggle; we needed to justify not having skinnerboxes or "social" accounts in some site run by a private company
Generation Chaff - Phase I: Social Control Media
IRC predates the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 23, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 23, 2025
More Clues Shed on Collapse of Microsoft XBox
XBox is basically circling down the drain as Microsoft implements 2-3 waves of layoffs each month
'Vibe Coding' Doesn't Work
In a lot of ways, so-called 'Vibe Coding' is already considered vapourware or a passing fad promoted in the media by managers who try to justify mass layoffs, especially ridding companies of "very expensive" software engineers
Links 24/10/2025: Microsoft's Killing of XBox Connected to Revenue/Profit Problems, "How Elon Musk Ruined Twitter"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/10/2025: 86,400 Seconds and "Society's Task"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News and Slopfarms That Relay Nonsense From LLMs
Google News, which once prioritised or used to care about provenance and quality, is feeding slopfarms
Links 23/10/2025: More Health Concerns Over Dumb Chatbots (LLMs) and "Talking Cars" as Latest Buzz
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Daylight Savings Time and Duration Shorthand
Links for the day
Links 23/10/2025: LLM 'Hallucinations' (Defects) in Practical Code 'Generation', China Becomes More Economically and Technologically Independent
Links for the day
Why We Support Richard Stallman and You Probably Should Too
It's not about being "Richard Stallman fan", it is about maintaining the right to hold positions (on technology) like his
Linux Foundation Uses LLM Slop to Promote Microsoft in Linux.com (Again), Rendering It a Linux-Hostile Slopfarm
Openwashing with slop by "Linux.com Editorial Staff", which basically seems to be a bot
Some Large German Media Covers Richard Stallman's Talks in Germany Earlier This Week
LLM-based chatbots are just "bullshit generators" (as he has long called them)
Links 23/10/2025: Windows TCO Galore and "The Internet Is Going to Break Again"
Links for the day
Trouble in Red Hat/IBM and a Retreat to Ponzi Economics in Search of Wall Street Market Heist
Would you invest your life savings in this kind of crap?
Who Asked Software in the Public Interest (SPI) for a Refund? ($100,000, Resulting in Losses of $267,201 in 12 Months, Highest-Ever Losses)
The IRS does not reveal who or what's tied to this refund (or the cause/reason)
Social engineering attack: Debian voted to trick you on binary blobs
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Stand for Women's Rights
We even invest money - personal savings that it - in our principles
Certified Lawyers Should Know Better (Than to Intimidate Us With Man Who Drives on Motorcycle Through a Really Bad Storm Between Distant Cities, Then Collects Photos of Our Home)
Mentioning someone was in prison for bad things isn't a crime, it's a public service
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble is Already Imploding
"ChatGPT Usage Has Peaked and Is Now Declining, New Data Finds"
The So-called "Sexy" Buckets (AI, Quantum) Cannot Save IBM From Reality, Shares Tank
"No matter how much financial hocus-pocus they use to reclassify revenues to land in the "sexy" buckets (AI, Quantum), it still smells old and musty - just like this company."
Paul Krugman is Wrong About the Scope of Mass Layoffs in the United States
A few years ago society was accelerating its journey towards feudalism, boosted by COVID-19
Links 23/10/2025: Proprietary Blunders and CISA's Latest Disclosure of Holes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Fast Past (F1), 99.9% Uptime
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 22, 2025