p2pnet - rss feed: Might MS halt Suse Linux coupons?
p2pnet.net news:- If the final Free Software Foundation GNU General Public License (GPLv3), “contains terms or conditions that interfere with our agreement with Microsoft or our ability to distribute GPLv3 code, Microsoft may cease to distribute Suse Linux coupons in order to avoid the extension of its patent covenants to a broader range of GPLv3 software recipients,” says Novell.
The warning comes in its regulatory filing of its annual report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2006.
Posted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission site, the document contained redacted versions of Novell’s business, patent and technology agreements with Microsoft, which it signed in November 2006, says CNET News, going on:
“Another worry is that Novell may be restricted in its ability to include GPLv3 code in its products. Novell admits in the statement that if its fears become reality, its business and operating results will be adversely affected.”
The statement says certain software programs aren’t covered under the Microsoft-Novell deal, “opening the door for Microsoft to pursue patent litigation. The programs named include OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, Wine and Open-Xchange,” adds the story.
Also See:
regulatory filing - Novell on Microsoft Linux deal, May 28, 2007
CNET News - Novell worries that GPL 3 could foil Microsoft pact, May 29, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 30th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
The mere fact that this “article” was even included indicates that not even supposed “advocates” of the FLOSS scene actually understand it….
1. No particular company, project, or individual is “relevant” in the free/opensource software “scene”. None. If a project does stupid things that the user-base doesn’t trust (like xfree86 did, for example), the project will simply be forked from the lastest feasable release, and a new project will take it’s place. (That’s how x.org happened.)
Likewise, if a distro chooses to do stupid shit, the user-base will desert it like a sinking ship.
Additionally, there’s a very real substrata of “licenses are bullshit, fuck ‘em” willingness to do civil-disobedience. Eric Raymond’s website contains DCSS info in his words “as an act of electronic civil disobedience”.
What any particular distro, project, organization, or government elects to do, or not, is of no importance whatsoever ultimately — provided a large enough number of people refuse to play along.
Microsoft is scared shitless by the fact that Linux is impossible to stop, monopolize, or control. Linux (or an equivalent) will eventually win out completely, if for no other reason than that it’s proliferation cannot be stopped.
Novell never quite understood that buying a linux distro (SUSE) wouldn’t make it a big player in the Linux scene. NOBODY can be a bigger player than anybody else, BOTH because of the GPL and philosophy behind it, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY because of the underlying culture of the scene itself.
What MIcrosoft and Novell are doing is similar to what SCO did: faltering corporate entities’ death-throes, nothing more.
I wish P2p.net would concentrate more on reporting articles that MATTER, and less on regurgitating mass-media bullshit.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
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