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● 08.31.08

●● Novell’s “Time Would be Better Spent in Doing Something Positive”

Posted in GNU/Linux, Interview, Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Patents at 8:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Extortion rackets ain’t positive

Novell’s screw-other-Linuxes-as-a-business-model strategy is treated too lightly by the Linux Foundation, which itself is funded by Novell (at least partially). The complaints about this need not be justified again, but Groklaw seems to have taken a similar stance, referring to this (“Highlights of the Linux Foundation End User Summit will include: An address from Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, which will include a Q&A with the Linux Foundation’s executive director Jim Zemlin.”) and then adding: “Here’s a question for him. “How could you?” And “When are you going to figure out the role the GPL plays?”

=> complaints about this | ↺ this

In a way, Novell is already destroying the credibility of the Linux Foundation. It does not necessarily endorse Microsoft’s actions, but it does not publicly denounce them anymore.

=> destroying the credibility of the Linux Foundation

Having brought the burden of frauds [1, 2] to the FOSS community, Novell has no shame. The legal issues are worth highlighting again, not to mention the brainwash, which seems to have charmed SJVN.

=> 1 | 2 | ↺ legal issues | ↺ charmed SJVN

Curiously, one of the major drivers behind Novell’s Linux business it its controversial partnership with Microsoft. While many open-supporters hate this deal, Novell has reason to love it.

Widened losses are nothing to crow about. As for Novell’s figures, the company settled fraud allegations before, it can cook easily its figures and we shall soon show in details how Microsoft does this too (it’s a very long post).

=> nothing to crow about | cook easily its figures

Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier is meanwhile downplaying the issues on behalf of Novell/OpenSUSE, proving that OpenSUSE is still represented by Novell itself. There is also the issue AstroTurf or paid-for press coverage [1, 2].

=> represented by Novell itself | 1 | 2

Anyway, here is a portion of what was said most recently:

=> ↺ was said most recently

Sean: Let me ask you a question in a different area. Generally speaking, in the open source community, there’s a somewhat mixed reaction to Novell having agreements with Microsoft. Do you feel that any controversy in that area has an effect on uptake of openSUSE?

Joe [Brockmeier]: When I took the job, that was one of the first things that I expected a lot of questions on, and in fact I did at one time, because everyone thinks that it’s the elephant in the room. But when I go to open source conferences and actually talking to users and whatnot, I generally haven’t found it to be as big of an issue as is generally suggested in the press. This is not to say that it’s not an issue at all, but it’s hardly the only issue, and after nearly two years, a lot of people have realized it’s not the catastrophe that some painted it as when it was announced.

I think there are some folks that are very active online trying to complain about this particular issue, and they’re welcome to that viewpoint. I would suggest that maybe if you are deeply committed to open source, perhaps your time would be better spent in doing something positive.

“Zonker” seems to be taking cheap shots at us. He should have done something useful like denouncing the deal rather than taking money from Novell to become an outspoken Microsoft apologist. Well, hopefully, for their own pseudo-benefit (imaginary advantage), “Zonker” and Novell will be enjoying their “intellectual property peace of mind” [1, 2] (or knee caps) — a situation and a phrase that they themselves created when they approached Microsoft for a software patents deal back in the middle of 2006. █

=> 1 | 2

That’s what Novell asked for

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