Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell Still a Threat to OpenOffice.org

Bad Novell



Summary: How Novell is trying to take charge of OpenOffice.org; reminder of where Red Hat got it right while Novell got it wrong

HYPOCRISY is a real problem and a trap. In the previous post we highlighted Microsoft's lobbying against the population's interests, but there is also government lobbying from Free/open source software-supporting companies such as IBM. We have criticised this for years. We also criticised Novell for paying IDC [1, 2] and feeding the same corrupt system which prolonged the agony with proprietary software (software patents too). To fix a broken system, one sometimes needs to break it; rather than play along with the USPTO by putting software patents in the OIN's arsenal, for example, one ought to just abolish software patents.

Today we take another glance at Novell, which we still target with the "Boycott Novell" campaign. Novell is still a predominantly proprietary software company which has new flaws in its proprietary software (e.g. [1, 2]) and even though Novell makes SUSE and OpenSUSE, this is joint work involving many other companies such as Red Hat, IBM, Nokia, Intel, and HP.

Novell has been trying for over 2 years to seize and gain a better status in the community while at the same time promoting Microsoft's agenda with projects like Mono and Moonlight. Novell's latest attempt to take control of OpenOffice.org is described by Tectonic:

Michael Meeks a long-time OOo and Gnome developer and Novell employee argues that among the chief problems are a lack of leadership, a half-hearted open source strategy and copyright assignments that discourage external contributions.


It's the same old story from Meeks et al [1, 2]. Now that Wipro and Novell (Thorsten Behrens) want to be closer and deeper inside OpenOffice.org, it is worth keeping an eye open. Oracle has no real financial stress [1, 2] and given the huge number of OpenOffice.org users, Novell is unlikely to get its way.

In other news, Matt Asay explains why Novell got it going with Microsoft:

Back in late 2006, Novell and Microsoft inked a broad interoperability agreement, one designed to prop up Novell’s SUSE against Red Hat’s dominant RHEL operating system. Novell painted the agreement as customer-friendly and driven by conversations with customers, Red Hat wasn’t impressed, in large part because Microsoft persisted in clouding interoperability with patents.

[...]

When I was still at Novell in 2005, we spent a year devising a strategy to hold off SharePoint because Microsoft was using it to drive Windows deeper into enterprises, and to push Novell out. When I asked then-Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik about the SharePoint threat to Red Hat, he sanguinely replied, “We never see it.”

The broader Red Hat gets deployed, the more it’s bumping into Windows, both as a replacement OS and as a companion OS. Red Hat’s position, then and now, therefore makes a lot of sense. Back in 2006 it could afford to snub Microsoft; in 2010, it can’t.


Red Hat has already shown that collaboration can be followed through without patent deals and this continues to be shown in the latest press releases. There is nothing wrong with making things work together, as long as control games and patents are left off the table so that open standards can be obeyed instead.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
 
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day