Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (4498 mails)

[Lev Lafayette <lev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 05:08 +0100, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> Kurt Wall wrote:
> > This is now the second time that a distribution and the company behind
> > has sold us down the river. The first time it was OpenLinux and Caldera. Now
> > it is SLES/SLED/openSUSE and Novell. I appreciate the openSUSE != SUSE
> > insofar as openSUSE is, ostensibly at least, a community project, but
> > when Microsoft turns on Novell, _and they will_, I don't want to be
> > around to get any on me. So long.
> 
> >From the FAQ on the Novell site:
> "Microsoft is also pledging not to assert its patents against individual,
> non-commercial open source developers"
> 
> I wouldn't call that selling the users down the river. Independent of
> the fate of Novell the deal will stop worries about MS killing the open
> source movement with patents.
> 

An opinion voiced on another list:

"I wonder whether this is a preliminary to bringing patent infringement 
action against other Linux distributors. After all, Microsoft can't be seen to 
be trying to squelch Linux, as this might be regarded as anti-competitive, 
but trying to enforce patents against distributors who won't sign up could 
be a different matter."

See also:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061102175508403


I hope they're wrong, I really do. But lets face it, in this world every
business preaches competition but actually wants to be the monopoly
provider.


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