Weekly Edition
Return to the Press page| Weekly edition | Kernel | Security | Distributions | Search |
| Archives | Calendar | Subscribe | Write for LWN | LWN.net FAQ |
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
(Log in to post comments)
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 3:58 UTC (Fri) by heksys (guest, #41569) [Link]
So this is not negative, but the deal with Novell is? Make up you're mind dude, a deal with Microsoft is always bad, at least that all people wrote when Novell try to do good for Linux but now is just like nothing, is all good, is awesome. I think that if it wasn't for Novell to be one of the first companies to dare and face Windows non of this wouldn't happened. I think that regardless of the company history is always good for Linux and open source communities when there source is open.
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 4:00 UTC (Fri) by heksys (guest, #41569) [Link]
" So this is not "negative" " I meant to say "Positive"
One subtle difference
Posted Dec 21, 2007 6:59 UTC (Fri) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]
You can fork Samba and keep access to Microsoft's documentation. You cannot fork SUSE and have a free covenant from Microsoft with a promise not to sue your customers over patents (whether they will sue is a different question).
No need to fork
Posted Dec 21, 2007 23:34 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]
You can even give a CD with Samba to a friend, and she keeps the same rights as the original. With SUSE your friend loses the strange "covenant not to sue" from Microsoft.
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 7:10 UTC (Fri) by MKallas (guest, #38539) [Link]
Novell didn't face Microsoft, they surrendered to them, making a fool of themselves.Samba did not acknowledge any patents Microsoft claims to hold and paid no license fee for them.
Not every deal with Microsoft is bad, just bad deals are!
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 10:13 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
Absolutely. The Novell-Microsoft deal would of been wonderful if it wasn't for the patent agreement. 99% of everybody works with and around Windows machines and they are a huge PITA to deal with from a Linux point of view. Linux already has the highest level of compatability with Windows that your going to find anywere and that is with very good reason. With windows protocol and file format compatability is the key to cracking open the Microsoft Desktop monopolies. Anything to make Linux easier and cheaper for regular folks to use is a good thing. Obviously Microsoft knows this so they made sure to slip Novell the poison pill in the form of the distasteful patent agreement. (a tasteful patent agreement would allow the use of the patents by any free software-using person for any purpose. That's a good software patent agreement.) In this case the patents are a mixed bag.. Samba can't/won't use them, but on the side note Samba nows exactly which patents Microsoft has over the network protocols and can now more easily avoiding them. So eventually this deal should completely disarm any patent weapon Microsoft may choose to leverage against Samba AND (thanks to the documentation) make Samba work just that much better. It's a WIN-WIN, mostly. This is the sort of thing that Novell should of been aiming for in the first place... Samba did it right, Novell did it wrong. Hopefully this sort of thing should serve a lesson for other Linux-oriented companies on how to deal with these sort of situations. For example this sort of approach (sans the anti-trust lawsuit) would/could be an effective way to deal with Nvidia and ATI/AMD when it comes to openning up hardware. There are numerous patents related to OpenGL and lots of agreements with third party companies were ATI/Nvidia uses a lot of 'IP' they don't actually control or own.
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 10:23 UTC (Fri) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link]
"The Novell-Microsoft deal would of been wonderful if it wasn't for the patent agreement." Of course, the patent agreement only has relevance in the small parts of the world, where software patents actually exist. So it's not _that_ much of a problem. Oh, and AMD nowadays supports free drivers for it's ATI products. So, no need for a solution there anymore.
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 18:56 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
Well it's a big enough of a problem in Europe that part of the EU ruling did involve software patents. So it does matter to them on some level. > Oh, and AMD nowadays supports free drivers for it's ATI products. So, no need for a solution there anymore. Sorta. There still isn't any documentation for any 3D portions of the card, which is what matters on modern cards... 2D stuff is all but irrelevent (since it's pretty much non-existant. 2D stuff is done more through the 3D hardware, especially for things like video playback). So we have drivers that can do modsetting and not much else. No 2D acceleration, no 3D acceleration for the R600 and only some 2D acceleration for the R500. It's all this patent stuff that is hurting this. Keep in mind that ATI has done this before were they did documentation drops and never delivered on the promised goods. I hate to be pessimistic, but until 3D documentation is avialable then it's just not enough to get realy excited over. Hopefully the idea of having a PFIF corporation as a standard way to interact with free/open source software inviduals will help facilitate better communication between groups.
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 21, 2007 17:48 UTC (Fri) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link]
Samba did it right, Novell did it wrong.Samba did get the help of being backed up by the European Union anti-trust folks, though.
Samba Team receives Microsoft protocol documentation (Groklaw)
Posted Dec 26, 2007 19:19 UTC (Wed) by renox (guest, #23785) [Link]
Sure, but if I remember correctly Samba's team cooperated with the EU anti-trust folks so the EU "help" is partly the result of Samba's developer action.. Help thyself and the EU may help you (sometimes) :-)