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Re: [LUG] openSUSE 10.2 review

 

On Sun, 2006-12-10 at 10:19 +0000, Tom Potts wrote:
> Read the review thanks  - I've got 9.2 and 10.1 and moderatley happy with 
> both.
> At the start of the review you say you don't see the problem with the Novell 
> Microsoft deal! I'd recommend reading as much of www.groklaw.net as you can 
> and then you'll see. Its not about wether the GPL has been breached but about 
> the way M$ presents it.

Hi Tom, thanks for the reply :-) ...

I've just edited the post to talk a bit about FUD but made it clear that
I've yet to come to a conclusion on the matter; in the edit I've pointed
people in the direction of both Groklaw and openSUSE wiki, where you can
see arguments from both sides, and asked people that they make up their
own mind about the deal. I still stand by, all deals aside, that it is a
really good distribution. 

I'll be sure to give Groklaw a good read myself. 
> We all know SCO has no rights over Linux but the court case there has put off 
> millions from using Linux. The FUD that M$ will generate over the deal will 
> turn millions more off. Its not the deal thats the problem, its the leverage 
> it seemingly gives M$.
> I've been a Suse fan since I installed 5.1 on a 386 with 4 meg of ram and it 
> ran for many months without a hitch!
> I program in .NET and the Novell Mono work is fantastic. I cannot, in all 
> conscience, recommend a Novel product to anyone any more as a result of their 
> money grabbing actions - yes they were entitled to the money but the deal 
> they accepted to get it is just dumb and they will probably sink as a result 
> of it - though it will take a while for them to burn up the cash.

I don't know if you're read what Novell say about it but they make a
convincing case for why this exchange of money is acceptable and the
deal as a whole. I know it's quite probable that they are spinning it to
an extent but I certainly think it's worth giving both sides a fair
hearing on the matter. 

Also, one can hope that the money they bring in from the deal will go to
further improvements to mono, more gui testing etc and maybe even give a
lot more back to the community!
> The real tragedy of it is they managed to amass a collection of superb 
> developers, create a really good distribution and that will all go to waste.
> They've put back FLOSS by 2 or 3 years - about 20 years in M$ development 
> terms. Its not good for the computing world.

Even if this deal turns out to be bad, I don't think it will set FLOSS
back 2-3 years. The community is diverse enough that something like this
will have a hard time effecting the whole thing. Add to the the apparent
precedent set in the SCO case, I can't see the damage being too great.
Then again, I've still to read Groklaw and get their opinions on the
matter. 

Oh, also, Red Hat also offers indemnification (is that the right term)
for their customers too, just not through a deal with Microsoft. I guess
they simply promise to cover any costs. 

Jon


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