Comments on: Boycott Novell Protestors Manhandled By National Free Software Conference 2008 Organizers

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Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:17:02 +0000

[...] Boycott Novell Protestors Manhandled By National Free Software … [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:42:15 +0000

Your free speech ends at the tip of my nose.

In the context, whether or not Novell is doing the wrong thing is irrelevant. The fact is that a group of loud mouthed a$$holes showed up at an event for the sole purpose of disrupting it.

I certainly hope that there were some serious bruises on some of them after they were rounded up; had it been me that was being subjected to their abusive attempts to suppress MY free speech, I wouldn’t have been kind enough to call the police. I’d have handled it myself, and there might have been body bags required.

By: TesserId

TesserId — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:22:45 +0000

I now work in an environment where Linux only exists as a replacement for expensive UNIX server and is destined to be replaced by Windows as soon as that becomes possible. The management chooses to view Linux as unsupportable and therefore not a real O/S.

This is one of he sad cases where Novell’s deal with the Devil is actually of use to Linux. This organization is buy Novell licenses because of the Microsoft deal. That is, they actually feel more confident about Novell because of the Microsoft deal.

I’m afraid the Linux community could do more to understand the support issue that corporations face, because these corporations will have no respect for and not listen to those who can not speak to their support needs.

Again, this is an area where the Microsoft deal was, sadly, good for Linux. Yes, it will probably bite us in the butt later on, but there’s a lesson to be learned here now.

By: Boycott Novell » Even Microsoft Chooses Red Hat Over Novell’s SUSE

Boycott Novell » Even Microsoft Chooses Red Hat Over Novell’s SUSE — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:08:37 +0000

[...] Boycott Novell Protestors Manhandled By National Free Software Conference 2008 Organizers [...]

By: Ankur Banerjee

Ankur Banerjee — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:34:11 +0000

@Shantanu: If comes to suing – which I don’t think it would – then there’s a safeguard in IBM’s pledge to countersue Microsoft in case such a situation arises. Microsoft has much more to lose if that happens. Binary blob is a disturbing issue, but what does it have to do with the MS-Novell deal in the first place? Nowhere does it mandate using binary-only version of MS technologies, as far as I know.

By: Shantanu Goel

Shantanu Goel — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:27:01 +0000

@Ankur: But they can surely pick and choose who to sue and who not to. And why do you think it is unenforceable or they wouldn’t think of enforcing it? Otherwise what is the point behind Novell licensing their technologies. Is it just a sham? and MS won’t ask anyone else to license them as well?
Plus, if we keep doing these compromizes on the premise of delivering a “better experience” to the users and “taking linux to the masses”, then there won’t be any linux left at all in the end. I mean it’s already bad to have all these driver blobs in the kernel and here we are, giving them a full approval to convert linux into nothing more than a new package of same old buggy, closed source proprietary code.
Infact, there is another angle to it all. In this way, filling up linux with apps that use MS technologies, they might even be able to convince ppl/companies to move over to windows when required at the opportune time that they decide to strike as the same apps would work for them either way.

By: Ankur Banerjee

Ankur Banerjee — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:51:23 +0000

@Shantanu: Again, I feel that’s being paranoid. I admit that my first reaction when the deal was done was same as yours, but the more I thought of it seems unenforceable – if MS ever takes that path – to sue every Linux user and / or company. Many enterprises use both Linux and Microsoft solutions and the backlash will be enormous if they every do anything such stupid. If Linux is to spread then people must be pragmatic. Novell is doing a *great* job at making Linux easier for desktop users and I think that should count too.

By: Shantanu Goel

Shantanu Goel — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:24:50 +0000

@Jeff: Yes, it is not unbiased. But good luck to you as well for existing in a world that Novell and Microsoft make you to see as real.
@Ankur: A comment box is too short to say all things but in short, the point here is that what Novell is doing is slowly taking GNU/Linux towards a pithole from which it might never recover. It’s two pronged approach to this is:
1. To license MS patents. I don’t know whether Novell paid the fees to MS for this or was it the other way round, because this basically gives MS a chance to say that those patents are really valid and enforceable.
2. Push so much of tainted MS technologies into GNU/Linux whose license/royalty status is very fuzzy at best right now.
Then, later on, when these things have infected the roots of GNU/Linux, MS can choose to force all the other distros to pay up (which they might not be able to and have to shut down) or worse, decide not to license it at all even if people are willing to up, forcing the free software movement to die a painful death.

By: Ankur Banerjee

Ankur Banerjee — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:39:26 +0000

@Danielh:

1. Red Hat *used to* put a lot of money into development, but right now they just sit around waiting for people to do the actual job on a shitty distro like Fedora. For the desktop end user, I can’t recall anything innovative off-hand other than AIGLX which Red Hat has done.
2. Agreed. IBM has supported and still supports Linux a LOT. The effects of that, however, are more tangible for enterprise deployments than desktop users. IBM has done a helluva good job with Lotus Symphony though – it really kicks ass when it comes to office suites.
3. Which brings me to Sun, a company which has been embracing open source more out of necessity than choice. It does a shitty job of managing OO.org development with all the restrictions in developers contributing and / or having a say in the direction the project takes. Novell’s version of OO.org is so much more faster AND they’ve contributed the code back but Sun refuses to include them because they want control (which is why Novell forked to Go-OO).

Coming to Ubuntu, the darling of all those who love open source, for a distro which bills itself as one of the most accessible it is ironic that certain key accessibility features don’t work and have been languishing despite bug reports being filed in Launchpad (which to this day remain ‘unassigned’).

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:36:56 +0000

Thank God this article doesn’t have the appearance of being unbiased in any way. At least people will not come looking here for any type of truth. Only paranoia and extremism here! Good luck existing in the real world.