Nga Novell një letër e hapur drejtuat komunitetit

Tim Patterson: Mary Jo is correct. It's all about the patent agreement. After the Q&A segment it was clear that the patent agreement was a defacto acknowledgement by Novell that Linux violates MS patents. Ballmer made it clear that the patent agreement protects ONLY users of SuSE Linux. When questioned about whether the patent agreement covered technology which will be developed or if it covers MS patents already existing in Linux the attorney made it clear that the agreement protects existing Linux in the form of SuSE.

So MS has found the big Linux vendor foolish enough to "legitimize" a patent claim on Linux by Microsoft. This makes it easier for MS to claim that Linux infringes their "IP" and claim that Novell recognized this "fact" and struck a deal.

Now it's only a matter of asserting claims against all distributors except Novell thereby thinning the herd and finally, deal with Novell SuSE last.

Simon Phipps:

The word on the street is that Novell had some deep patent dirt on Microsoft and went proudly to demand their bounty. Negotiations proceeded over several months, and the result (hurriedly rescheduled to respond to Oracle) was today's shindig in San Francisco.

So how was it that at the end of the day they ended up affirming software patents (something Microsoft wants and Free software people hate), set a precedent that open source distributors owe Microsoft money, slandered GNU/Linux as derivative and encumbered, and much more. Novell is now safe in the shade of a patent exchange and gets to talk about interoperability, a few private developers have a protection they hadn't been worrying about much and everyone else is left wondering if this means they are next for the visit from the Redmond enforcement department. What happened? Drugs in the soda? ...

This is not at all surprising; indeed, I've heard others say this is Microsoft's modus operandi, a ju-jitsu move that takes the weight of an attack and turns it back both on the attacker and the folks around them, usually without them even noticing (at least not to start with).

nga një postim

I'm telling ya, those kids have been in Microsoft's back pocket since day one. I remain convinced that Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman are on Microsoft's payroll. Maybe not directly, but I'll bet if you follow the money you'll find the connection.

People always loved to say "Red Hat wants to be the Microsoft of Linux" but it isn't true. Ximian (who call themselves "Novell" these days) really do, and they mean it. Why else would they pull Microsoft's "Not Invented Here" game, over and over again? They destabilized Linux's ascendance on the desktop by creating GNOME, when KDE was already there. They delayed Linux's migration to a managed code environment by introducing Mono to muddy the waters. There are probably a dozen or so other major projects that follow this pattern of behavior.

And now that they're in control of Novell, they're signing a deal with the devil. Novell will get screwed just like every other Microsoft "partner" in the last 20 years has, but they don't care. They're deliberately trying to turn Linux and Open Source into a legal minefield.

Now is the time to boycott Ximian (aka Novell). Do it now. If you're a business, cut your ties with them. Get your commercial support from Red Hat or Oracle if you have to. If you're an individual user, go for Ubuntu or some other distribution that's well-supported by the community. And when you're selecting what software to run, make sure it isn't something controlled by the kids from Boston.

Bruce Perens, një nga figurat më aktive në fushën e OSS-së, i është kundërpërgjigjur marrëveshjes me një letër të hapur/peticion që vazhdon të nënshkruhet. Përmbajten e letrës dhe komentet nga nënshkruesit, shumë prej tyre nga më zbavitëset, mund të lexohen në këtë lidhje:

http://techp.org/petition/show/1