Michael Wiktowy wrote:
Just finished watching the Novell/MS press conference and it looks like MS is trying to spread the software patent bogeyman again (now that their ploy with SCO isn't quite panning out as they imagined) but it seems to me due to the complex entanglement of upstream contributers, they would have a hard time pursuing any IP rights against anyone in the Open Source community now ... including Red Hat. Here's to hoping that Novell is acting in the greater good on the Open Source community rather than self interests. /Mike
The only way that Novell is working for the good of the OSS community is if they convince all the coders that contribute MS-Linux code to put it under GPL and hopefully GPL3. And hope that some of the code actually ends up in Windows so they have to release the source code or drop it. :)
What I am hoping is that the developers see this sham and ensure that their code "cannot" be used in the IP constrained world that MS is trying to setup. Can you imagine the problems Novell will have if all of a sudden they cannot deploy the latest tool because they cannot meet the GPL due to MS's restrictions on revealing the source code?
I do hope that all those companies that are using SUSE decide to stop purchases and let Novell know that it isn't good company policy to get into bed with the Devil.
-- Robin Laing
