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Microsoft and Novell do it again
Microsoft and Novell have announced that, since their deal turned out so well, they will be expanding it. "The investment focuses on enhanced programs from Novell to provide
tools, support, training and resources for customers seeking an
enterprise-class Linux platform and specifically, the optimal
interoperability solution between Microsoft Windows Server and SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server from Novell. It also includes Microsoft's
commitment to purchase up to $100 million in certificates that those
customers can redeem for expanded support from Novell that includes SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server support and support for moving toward an
enterprise-class Linux platform."
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Microsoft and Novell do it again Posted Aug 20, 2008 15:58 UTC (Wed) by sylware (guest, #35259) [Link] Oh?! I really wonder why Novell is the main supporter of mono(.net)? Really, I don't know why Novell is brute forcing that bloat in gnome...
Microsoft and Novell do it again Posted Aug 20, 2008 18:00 UTC (Wed) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263) [Link] To make KDE stand in a better position. ;-)
Microsoft and Novell do it again Posted Aug 20, 2008 21:16 UTC (Wed) by AlexHudson (guest, #41828) [Link] Mono was important before the Novell deal, before even Novell bought it, and will be important long after the deal ends. Whether or not you like the system, it's virtually critical for some users and it's an excellent piece of free software.
Microsoft and Novell do it again Posted Aug 21, 2008 5:13 UTC (Thu) by kripkenstein (subscriber, #43281) [Link] Yes, whatever criticisms are made against Mono - and some are valid - it is turning into an important FOSS project. In fact just today the leading virtual world platform, Second Life, announced it is rolling out Mono on its servers for scripting purposes. http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/08/20/mono-launch/ Also worth noting that Second Life's FOSS 'competitor' (on the server-side), OpenSim, is written in C# and tested on .Net and Mono. Consequently derivative projects like realXtend are also C#-based (however, sadly they test only on .Net last I checked, and not all of their non-OpenSim features work on Mono - highlighting a problem with the Mono-.Net situation, in fact). In any case, like it or not, Mono is quite successful in this field at least.
...but relying on it would be foolish Posted Aug 22, 2008 12:18 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] Mono existing is great, but it's dangerous to rely on it. As soon as Microsoft start legal attacks or a FUD campaign, we have to be ready to drop part or all of Mono. So GNOME shouldn't rely on it, and we should encourage people to use languages like java, python, c/c++, or whatever. Like Wine, Mono is a great contribution because it eases the transition from an MS environment to a free software environment, and because it eases the transition from c##/.Net technologies to non-MS technologies. But let's not get blinded by the beauty of our weapons. Mono isn't something to bet our farm on.
...but relying on it would be foolish Posted Aug 22, 2008 12:22 UTC (Fri) by kripkenstein (subscriber, #43281) [Link] Yeah, I agree with all that.
...but relying on it would be foolish Posted Aug 22, 2008 12:29 UTC (Fri) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link] You mean, just like -- Samba, and its reimplementation of proprietary MS technology? Following your argument, we should not rely on using Samba as a fileserver in a heterogenous computing environment? After all, legal access to this MS technology is only available with PFIF since Dec 2007, and even there MS patents on that technology are explicitly not covered.
...but relying on it would be foolish Posted Aug 22, 2008 13:44 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] The approaches taken by Samba and Novel are polar opposites. The Samba developers are very careful about legal cleanliness. For example, they don't do any reverse engineering (they only do protocol analysis). MS has offered the code many times, and they've always turned it down. They (with FSFE) were also very careful about the licence terms of the documentation that was squeezed out of MS by the European Commission. Novell is doing the opposite. It's implementing MS technologies, while taking directions (and I guess documentation) from MS. No one knows where MS is leading Novell. Another difference is that Samba are helping introduce free software to many environments where Microsoft's protocol was already ubiquitous - so any change can only be a reduction in MS, so we can only win. Meanwhile, Novell's MS-like projects are promoting MS technologies that are not (yet) ubiquitous. If Novell supported something safely free, like Java, or Python, or whatever's hot nowadays, then maybe we could prevent MS from winning these markets in the first place.
Patent threat right up front Posted Aug 20, 2008 21:37 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] This is a way for MSFT to stay on-message while using Novell to deliver the patent threat.
Patent threat right up front Posted Aug 20, 2008 22:05 UTC (Wed) by lmb (subscriber, #39048) [Link] Did you read anything in the deal about patents? You're better informed than I am ...
Cementing the old relationship Posted Aug 22, 2008 12:29 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] The previous deal gave Novell an incentive to spread FUD (publicly or privately) about the threat of MS's patents to free software. This means they are MS's FUD puppet. That's the relationship, and this deal means Novell is deepening the relationship. One doesn't have to know all the details to be able to point out the obvious.
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