into electronic streams flowing thru the cosmos On Sunday 05 November 2006 8:13 am, Geoffrey wrote:

John Andersen wrote:

...

Red Hat: We will be here in one year, Novell will not

http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39 _gci1228357,00.html

I don't think Novell had a clue as to how many open source advocates would simply drop their product because of this agreement to partner with Microsoft. From a philisophical point of view, I will find it a hard time continuing to support SuSE. I decided a long time ago that I would not put anymore money into Microsoft coffers and therefore the agreement with Microsoft creates a dilemma for me.

I could be completely wrong here, but isn't Novell only going to pay royalties for things like Samba and other items that "connect" to Windows ? There can be no doubt they owe nothing for various bits that are entirely Unix/Linux . And I suspect that MS has learned from the SCO debacle that suing ones user base for using your product is unlikely to bring in more income.. Even businesses will switch to linux, and they all ( the big ones anyway ) have some form of "nix" they have already paid IBM etc to come maintain... IBM,then seeing an opertunety , also zooms their army of sales folk over to these guys w/ an "outstanding new and easy deal for you to take this chance to upgrade all your desktop PCs to Linux ( prolly something Suse, but in any case heavily customized...) IBM provides employee training and phone bank support for the peons who will likely not even know there has been any change to their computers, other than the obvious cosmetic stuff. And GatesCo is left wondering wha' 'oppen???!!. It seems to me that all the "Kiosk" stuff makes desktop management easier. Since that system once settled can be "locked down" to keep the users from tampering w/ it. That simplifies the day to day ops... fewer needs to reboot= fewer chances for something to be screwed up= fewer lost hours hunting for backups etc. ( I'm NOT advocating that IT stop doing backups tho.) Another advantage of this system would be that no matter where in the world you go, where you have an office you will have a recognizable desktop where you can sit and begin work. Somewhat like the MS advert running here, where an American guy goes to someplace looking apparently Russian The man has , maybe two words in the language, but they sit him at a computer and the Boss type says, pointing out items on a screen we do not see.. "Server, computer, Windows, and the new worker bee says Da! cute... not very realistic but cute.. could just as easily say the same and end w/ Linux.. That, coupled w/ the ads that Jobsco has out now, where a Mac dressed in SJ Turtleneck outfit, and a PC looking like Gates as Nebish, which throughout the whole series has been able to do less and less, until Mac tells him hit future ( running MacOS) So far they are have established that PeCe can't do anything and they have gone to a shrink... I keep waiting for Gates to hit back but as of now he hasn't. -- j Revenge is a dish best served cold.

On Sunday 05 November 2006 20:13, Geoffrey wrote:

John Andersen wrote:

...

Red Hat: We will be here in one year, Novell will not

http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci 1228357,00.html

I don't think Novell had a clue as to how many open source advocates would simply drop their product because of this agreement to partner with Microsoft. From a philisophical point of view, I will find it a hard time continuing to support SuSE. I decided a long time ago that I would not put anymore money into Microsoft coffers and therefore the agreement with Microsoft creates a dilemma for me.

Same dilemma here. I did see Novell killing WordPerfect. I did see Novell killing QuattroPro. I did see Novell killing DrDOS (when it started to be a thorn for MS). I did see Novell killing UnixWare. And now I fear for SuSE. I want to continue to use SuSE, I really do, but I do not want to pay MS in any way anymore, and I do not even want to use mono based stuff. This is causing me real pain. So many years of working with SuSE and supporting it, loving it, spreading it, installing it wherever possible are not thrown away easily. My download of the remastered 10.1 is still running, another 2 days (slowband here), and when it is done I will probably never use it. OMG, what are they thinking at Novell???

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin