Novell-Microsoft: What They Aren't Telling You
Submitted by srlinuxx on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 19:22
Today Novell and Microsoft announced a partnership in which Microsoft has made some unlikely-seeming promises regarding Linux. What aren't they telling you? First, you can be sure that Microsoft's not out to help a competitor. This announcement paves the way for Microsoft to implement significant control over commercial customer's use of Free Software. And it has significant negative implications for Open Source in general.
There are two significant announcements. First, that Novell and Microsoft are entering into a patent cross-license, and second, that Microsoft is promising not to assert its patents against individual non-commercial developers. The bad part is that this sets Mirosoft up to assert its patents against all commercial Open Source users. There are also some little bonuses for Microsoft, like Novell will help Microsoft turn back the Open Document Format and substitute something.
When we say "commercial", it's interesting to note that there are really few non-commercial users: people who only use their computer for a hobby. Buying something on a web site, for example, is a commercial use. Most individuals use their computers in some aspect of making their livelyhood. There will now be a Microsoft-approved path for such people to make use of Open Source, an expensive subscription to Novell SuSe Linux that costs as much or more than Microsoft Windows and that comes with a patent license.
Hell freezes over
As part of this agreement, Microsoft will provide a covenant not to assert its patent rights against customers who have purchased SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) or other covered products from Novell, and Novell will provide an identical covenant to customers who have a licensed version of Windows or other covered products from Microsoft
Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer (left) said that, in effect, "Novell will act as a proxy for its customers, but only for Novell's customers. This leaves the impression that Microsoft might consider legal action against other Linux companies, such as Red Hat Inc., with which it doesn't have such an agreement.
In addition, Ballmer said that Microsoft would not use its patent portfolio against any individual, non-profit open-source software developer or against any openSUSE programmer whose code ended up in SUSE Linux.
More Here.
Also on Linux-Watch:
Microsoft? Microsoft is giving a Linux distribution it's blessing? Novell is working with its arch-enemy of over 20-years?
It still seems unbelievable. but it did happen. Microsoft is "supporting" Linux, and both companies are working together to improve interoperability between Windows and Linux.
So, this is great news, right? Microsoft finally admits Linux is not only for real, but that they need to work with it. Wonderful, right? Right?
Novell/Microsoft deal: good for Novell, good for Linux?.
----
You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?
Reality check: Microsoft isn't waving the white flag
I'd agree with Tim Patterson, one of the commentors on my site, that Novell CEO "Hovespian fell into the trap."
(Hovespian didn't completely disappear into the rabbit hole, however. Novell decided to take its antitrust suit against Microsoft over WordPerfect off the table before interoperability discussions began, confirmed Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux for Novell.)
"This (Microsoft-Novell deal) is all because they both want to screw Oracle and Red Hat," a Linux consultant, who asked to remain anonymous, told me. "It smacks of the Hitler and Stalin alliance. Two bitter enemies getting together to bonk the other bad guys on the head."
That Commentary.
----
You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?
Change/End?
There is definitely a war going on in the IT world. We have on one side RedHat, Novell, Sun and etc... on the other side is the One standing Giant as somebody called it the "allseeing eye"...
We can put it that way Novell SLED 10 is great but definitely no Vista Killer, Vista will come, but I think MS knows that the impact won't like by W95. Evolution not Revolution.
Linux is gaining momentum slowly, cautiously but inevitably... MS knows that, there to manny enemies to fight to many dollars to spend and a proverb says "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" I think Novell took it that way, but forgot one point, MS wants to stay a life the "eye" wants is power and getting the hands on such a potential of opensource is "tasty" I don't want to be a pessimist but Novell will pay for it, the hard way not today but soon a I think this will shake the free side hard, when MS "destroys" one danger he will slowly infiltrate the next bastion. I think these "partnership" is very dangerous with consequences we can only hardly imagine....
Microsoft always had its own Linux Labs to license others ?
Its own Linux labs uses one page licensing agreements to give Linux distros permission to use Microsoft codes. Linspire took advantage of it often.
The fight against Microsoft from Linux open source community is for the newbies. Why do we have to use Wine or crossover emulation for Linux distros? Or Ndiswrapper for drivers that component manafacturers gave to Microsoft free.
We are stockholders of Novl and Msft. Opinions here may be biased.
Microsoft always had its own Linux Labs ?
Microsoft had decided to give some protocol to Firefox earlier; and Firefox 2.0 tar.gz came in at 9.17 mb long instead of the usual 5.6 mb long.
OpenSuse had its bugs(25,000); Tuxmachines.org had been very kind in many remarks in our review. It is obvious Novell will gain from Microsoft association.
In the heat of our debate, we have to look at the Linux applications and that who will benefit from Microsoft distribution of Linux operating system. The whole world will benefit.
Microsoft is doing what IBM had done for some time with AIX 5L having both unix and Linux. Windows is BSD(NT) which is also unix. Now they are adding Novell linux.
It was bound to happen
(Just how badly is Novell doing, financially?)
--
><)))°> Kanotix: Making Linux work. http://kanotix.com