On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 10:52 -0800, Peter Roopnarine wrote:
> On Thursday 16 November 2006 10:15, tom poe wrote:
> > Seems to me, that's just plain nonsense, for both Red Hat and Novell.
> > What's going on?
> I'm not what you mean "for both Red Hat and Novell". Do you mean on
> Microsoft's part? Their approaches to Microsoft's motions have been very
> different. It is not clear at all that any Novell-type agreement is
> necessary, and unless Red Hat's legal counsel and developers determine that
> an agreement is necessary, why would they want to go down this road? I have
> been a full-time Linux-only user for 9 years now, and while technological
> superiority is the reason for a very large part of my loyalty, politics has
> been also. I ditched my copy of OpenSuse last week.
> Peter
>
This looks a lot to me like MS is showing signs of fear.
With Linux is now being shipped on over 20% of new servers, even though
MS has around 60%, it is still a large segment they are loosing out on.
>From what I have read the items involved are :
Samba = Windows File Sharing
Mono = Programming Language compatible with .NET
OpenOffice = MS Office compatible productivity suite
.NET = Cruft {OOPS whas that my outside voice}
Windows Server = No Idea.
As well virtualization allowing MS and Linux to run at the same time on
the same hardware is part of the agreement. As far as I can tell this
just has to do with allowing limited contravention of the MS EULA and
nothing to do with Linux at all.
Microsoft has more to gain, by playing nice now, than going around
poking customers with sticks, and loosing them completely to Linux
solutions. All it takes to go from 60% to nothing is attacking your
customers. If customers are threatened they may very well move to
solutions that are devoid of any MS patents, and there are such
solutions for every item in the agreement. In many cases there are
much better products than what MS offers, and in cases where there is
not, if there is a demand, I am certain something can be created.
Not trying to take any swipes, but it would seem that with the recent
election results, even Americans are starting to resist believing FUD as
gospel, like lemmings marching to their doom. As the largest free
market, American purchasing power has a very significant effect on the
prosperity of MS, and unless changes are made there dealing with
software patents and other related issues, everyone will be under the
iron fist of the MS tyrants.
