Conflicted over openSUSE
I've found myself conflicted over Novell's recent pact with the devil as much as or perhaps moreso than many others have said. openSUSE has sorta been my pet project to follow since they announced they were opening up SuSE to the community. But now that they've taken this controversial step and are even including M$ code, what are open source supporters to do?
They have definitely turned many community members completely off and boycott Novell sites, sections, and movements have emerged. I understand that side of the coin, but have not been an open-source purist since my migration to Linux. I have used closed-source drivers, have dabbled with applications under Wine, and have been using win32 codecs and M$ fonts since the beginning. So, am I to get upset over M$ Office compatibility code making its way into openSUSE?
That act in and of itself is probably not the death knell but the overall impression of dealing with 'the enemy' that their original deal has made. For me the worst thing about M$ has not been their buggy systems and apps but how they are so patent and sue happy. It pisses me off to no end for someone to try and patent something they never "invented" or trying to sue some little guy for using codes/ideas they have no moral right to "own."
So, it's not that openSUSE has made a deal with the devil so much, but what that deal is and what it means to the open source community.
Buuuut, the problem is that I still really love the openSUSE operating system. This is almost as bad as trying to decide to dump that cheating boyfriend. Of course, you have to dump him, but damn, you sure don't want to.
It's been said that openSUSE isn't Novell, but I don't subscribe to that. Novell proprietary and open sourced code makes it into openSUSE. M$ compatibility code will make it into openSUSE. For me, it's hard to separate the two.
Is Novell cheating on us? Yes. Should we dump them? That's the question. To help with my problem I've started a poll on the subject figuring I'd let my readers/visitors decide. Are they still interested in openSUSE? It's early in poll, but so far there's no run-away victor. Yes, Continue is ahead, but not by an over-whelming majority. An earlier should we boycott openSUSE poll didn't result in a clear answer. Opinions were divided almost right down the middle with No slightly ahead.
So in addition to the above, I face an unexpected dilemma. I find myself 'rooting' for the Yes, Continue. So, I've created for myself yet another conflict. What if Naw, Fuggetaboutit ends up with a significant lead? Will I abide by the ruling of the poll? Can I abide by the ruling of the poll?
Damn you Novell. You're sleeping on the couch tonight Buddy!
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re: conflicted over opensuse
Since you can never please all of the people even some of the time, I'd recommend that you write about stuff you enjoy or find interesting.
Just because a topic might be controversial, doesn't mean it should be taboo (at least not in the civilized world).
As to the indignant people who want to boycott Novell - go for it. Look how well all that consumer rage worked for the music fans against the RIAA lawsuits.
Should you use OpenSUSE, if it works for you, then why not? I don't think any small children were forced into black market organ donation by SUSE in order to fund it. If you don't like who's offering you a free meal, you always have the option to eat elsewhere or go hungry.
If the Open Source community can't "survive" the Microsoft/Novell partnership, it probably just wasn't meant to survive at all.
re: conflicted over opensuse
Yep, I think you're right. I've never been too much of a political person. I guess I was looking for validation? And in the end Yes got twice as many votes as Naw anyway.
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You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?
On the other hand . . .
Sometimes your have to draw a line. Running wine or installing win32 codecs or using NVidia's binary drivers is one thing.
But Novell/SUSE's pact with the devil is quite another. Novell/SUSE and OpenSuse can't be separated. And I don't think that you should be reviewing and discussing OpenSuse.
I despise Microsoft as a company. I don't much like their operating systems. Their office software suite is darn good. Some of their programming tools are excellent. But, in the long run, close relationships with this company are dangerous. You end up losing your property and your soul.
Now, any decision you make is not going to stop me from participating at tuxmachines, because I know you well enough to know that you try to do the right thing, and honorable people can disagree on what that is.
For me, personally, I'll never again install OpenSuse or Novell/Suse on a computer system. The deal with Microsoft was just too much.
re: On the other hand
Somebody should fork the code right now. Take out that apparmor and everything else that is included in that "propriety code" license we agree to at install and go from there separately.
Of course I wish someone would make a 64bit version of pclos too.
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You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?
Well...
I'm an end user; I use linux as a Desktop. I want linux to play music, videos, browse the web, instant message..have easy configuration/installing of software, and look good doing it. That's exactly what SuSE does..and not to mention, 10.2 seems to be one of the most user-friendly, stable, good looking distros out there. It's rock solid. After getting my new PC, I never thought twice about installing SuSE 10.2 over Windows XP.
My whole thought on this Microsoft deal? Well..we all know Microsoft is known for trouble. I've rarely heard of them working with competitors..instead, they usually sue them or try getting rid of them completely. So because of that, I understand the worry with this deal.
However, I'm not going to stop using SuSE at this point. It's a perfect distro for me..and works amazingly. I have also yet to see any real negative affects from this deal. Until I see Microsoft negatively affecting the open source community *FROM THIS DEAL*...and/or messing with other distros un-related to novel/suse *BECAUSE OF THIS DEAL*..I will continue to use it happily. Is that ignorant? Maybe. I've never been a political person, and I really don't care about the representations...or Microsoft being "the devil". As long as the devil is helping SuSE, and not affecting it or other distros negatively, I have absolutely no problem using it.
each linux is different
There are enough linux version out there for everyone. Novell making a deal with Microsoft, well if you didn't see that coming a mile away that I don't think you have been paying attention to what Novell has been working on. Their focus is on creating a linux version that can somewhat function on a windows network. VBA functionality, the Mono project, easy AD authentication, and so on and so on. I think if I was a windows network admin and saw how easy it is to setup a suse desktop on a windows network, and then looked at my other linux choices and realized that I might need to jump onto a console and edit some config files, well the easy choice would be to go to suse. I believe that when all is said and done, that novell will be seen to have brought linux to the windows world.
One more thing
Just wanted to say, I have been playing around with Vista for the past couple of months,and my conclusion is that it sucks, I mean big time. Windows ME all over again. The time for linux in the windows world is now. Microsoft learned from ME and XP has been very succesfull. They will eventually get Vista right, maybe after a couple of service pack releases. In the end I have found OpenSuse 10.2 much better over vista. Linux users should be wanting for suse to succeed. I don't get linux users, they can install wine, or support projects like ReactOS, which try to mimmick windows, but then turn on Novell when they are just trying to get more market share. In the end, when it comes to money, people will pay for things to just work.