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Novell Vice Chairman on Ximian, SCO
dotnothing writes "microsoft-watch.com has an interview with Chris Stone, who is the Vice Chairman of Novell. Stone says that Novell will be introducing a Linux distribution with Novell products and the Ximian desktop, but that they are not out to compete with Microsoft. He also expressed some gratitude to Red Hat for countersuing SCO."
Speaking of Red Hat -- SCO released some of their legal threats which I found to be entertaining. Excerpts are in this story...
but that they are not out to compete with Microsoft
so, will they install Ximian on XP?
... information wants to be forwarded
RedHat didn't purchase Ximian?
--------
Free your mind.
Stone: We are going to continue to push it. .Net on Linux is a great idea. We just hope Microsoft isn't against the idea.
I cannot imagine a world in which Microsoft would even consider allowing such a thing to happen.
Still this looks like a good thing overall.
DeviantArt Page
NSFW"but that they are not out to compete with Microsoft"
"Uh... Yeah... We want to sell this but, uh.. not a lot of it..." - Chris Stone
Stone: We are going to continue to push it. .Net on Linux is a great idea. We just hope Microsoft isn't against the idea.
I'd 'just hope' Linux users aren't against the idea.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Don't buy out SCO, it is a bad investment.
To buy SCO you would need a reason why this is a good use of money, to make them go away is probaly not a good use of corporate funds.
Those millions could do a lot of legal fighting, or development, or even advertising. All with a better ROI then removing SCO.
"He also expressed some gratitude to Red Hat for countersuing SCO."
He knows what to do, with the fund and all.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Why the hell does anybody wants to buy SCO? They are only worth the money if they are gonna win the lawsuit, and I hope that never happens.
Disclaimer: This opinion was created without the use of any facts
Microsoft Watch: What's the future of Mono, Ximian's implementation of .Net on Linux?
.Net on Linux is a great idea. We just hope Microsoft isn't against the idea.
... it puts you in the position of looking over your shoulder for as long as it is deployed. Indeed, were the GNU/Linux desktop and server implimentations to fully embrace it, Linux servers and desktops could well put themselves in the position of existing solely at the pleasure of Microsoft ... which would be a fleeting thing at best.
... it is about ceding authority to an avowed enemy of software freedom ("Linux is Unamerican" Microsoft may or may not be inherently evil, but that they are an enemy of free software is indisputable), be it authority in unilaterally defining a standard or, worse, authority in having the legal clout via patent (and perhaps copyright) law to kill a free project dead ... perhaps an entire genre of free projects if said project provides critical underlying infrastructure.
Stone: We are going to continue to push it.
And therein lies the fatal flaw in pushing a Microsoft-controlled (and possibly patented) standard on a free platform
It isn't about 'sucking up valuable developer time and effort' (plenty of things suck up valuable developer time and effort, indeed, that is the very essence of free software and the freedom for people to explore solutions wherever they lead)
We dismiss such concerns at our own, rather substantial, risk.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
They aren't going to destroy Evolution AND they're going to make it work with GroupWise. Ahh... for those of us running Novell/Linux in the academic world who are getting rather tired of Microsoft's mafia-esque licensing tactics (software assurance, anyone?), this is great news. One less major hurdle between now and a Linux desktop rollout. Yay Novell!
These VPs can ham it up all they want, but if they worked for me, I wouldn't let them out of the executive wash room. I'm sorry, but Novell's copyright stunt embarassed them at least as much as it did SCO. To allude to it ominously like the preview of a summer reality show is just tacky.
This coming from the company who has zero interest in the long term survivability of Linux...
Novell Vice Chairman on Ximian, SCO
I'm sure it was just me, but did a first glance at this headline read sorta like "Novell Vice Chairman on Ximian *and* SCO?
I got chills up and down, but then I read the article.
Whew. Close one.
This space for rent.
This may be a bit off topic, but I didn't want to submit a story and have two SCO headlines in a row. Darl's holding a teleconference today to answer questions about the Red Hat suit. The press release is here.
Call 1 (800) 238-9007 and enter 274040 as the access code.
This can only be a good thing. Despite what a lot of people say, Novell has lots of customers, and most are really commited to Novell products. Thus with them starting to move to Linux, and push it to their customers, we will see a lot of corporate Novell users switching to Linux. Novell has great tools for Windows, and if they port them to Linux (seems like they plan too), it will make convincing people to use Linux that much easier. PHB's still love to pay for software, let them pay for Novell Linux
I found this bit interesting:
Microsoft Watch: Now that you are buying Ximian, will Novell offer a Linux desktop distribution?
Stone: Yes. The plan is to package the Ximian desktop with some of our products. Specifics are yet to be determined. But we want to cover Linux from the desktop to the server.
Ten years ago, Novell was the owner of DR-DOS, Netware, and Unixware, and had the potential to be a solutions provider for everything from the desktop, to medium sized workgroups, to enterprise scale solutions, but what did they do? They tried to compete against Lotus Smartsuite and MS Office with an office suite based on Quattro Pro and WordPerfect.
NT wasn't even ready yet, they coulda been a contender...
You know, Stone's little talk reminds me of what I've heard coming out of IBM lately. I can't help but wonder if Novell took a look at IBM, decided that they've done quite well for themselves with Linux, and decided to jump ALL the way onboard too.
Evolution-Groupwise by itself is enough for this merger to produce some great things.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Chris Stone is an excellent guy for Novell to have as a VP, as well as being a well respected chair of the Open Group he also used to be base player for the band that became Aerosmith (he left 6 months before they had their first big hit).
However, I have to wonder about the wisdom of producing yet another Linux distribution, particularly one aimed at the desktop arena. Although you may not know it from the figures, many internaional companies have already standardised on SuSE or Red Hat for their Linux vendors and the name Novell still has some bad connertations in the Corporate world.
Much of Novells strategy today seems to be selling very high value (expensive) products based around XML and Web Services (see their Silverstream aquisition) to Fortune 500 / FTSE 100 companies. I know as an implemetor for their excellent DirXML Meta Directory in a 100,000 employee company.
To my mind they would be better forming an alliance of the sort that SuSE and Sun announced yeterday, where Sun support and Distribute SuSE Linux and SuSE use Sun's Java in all their distributions. Novell could add their tools to SuSE and Red Hat, such as Directory Clients and Xen Works clients, concentrate on selling their servers on the SuSE and Red Hat platforms they already support and bundle SuSE and RedHat desktops for Netware customers. This would give them client penetration and server sales opportunities without having to compete with the Linux vendors. They could also leverage the relationship these vendors have with Sun and IBM who would be happy as the Novell server components also run on Solaris and (I think) AIX. Thoughts?
As located here, RedHat calls SCO's practices "likely to cause confusion, mistake or to deceive". Is that legalese for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt"?
Just a thought,
Joe
Wouldn't buying out SCO be just like negotiating with terrorists? Make no mistake: they want to be bought out! McBride and his cronies get themselves a golden parachute, SCO disappears, and the lawsuit disappears, and everyone is happy. Until one fine day a new piddly-ass failing SCO wannabe corporation with some semi-valuable "intellectual property" tries to do the same. There will be no end to it then.
IBM and RedHat and everyone concerned should do their utmost to grind SCO into the dust, so as to give a clear message that this sort of "terrorism" will never be tolerated.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
So what did Novell actually purchase ?
there are many answers to this question (of which i know none), but the one that forks in my mind is the actual 'control' of the future 'direction'. This will be used for Novell, and their purposes (which happens to be 'making money'). That in itself should be worth the dollars that were spent...
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
Seems like all is well, for now anyway.
My photolog
Who marked this insightful, when it is wrong?
ECMA only requires RAND, which means almost nothing in real terms.
In some cases, Microsoft and others have said "royalty-free", which is still clearly not GPLable and does not seem to extend much beyond a very basic core of C#, which I believe is far less than you get with a Java distribution, for example.
On the reference implementations I find mention of the mplementations being limited to "non-commercial" uses.
I complain about Java's lack of openness all the time, but the one thing Sun has never done (yet, to the best of my knowledge) is threaten third-party Java implementations with patents. Unfortunately, .net is not open, including specific technologies that Mono has said they would try to be compatible.
To those who wish that IBM or whoever would simply buy out SCO, consider the following:
1) America is rampant with frivolous lawsuits. Hell, we invented the term, along with nuiscience suit. What big company doesn't have one or more?
2)There will be more to follow. Count on it. When you get big enough, you get sued. If you're intimidated now(or your manager is), then you might as well drop Linux because this won't be the last. This lawsuit is as full of s*** as they come, and if we as a community concede to their desire for a buyout under these circumstances, we have no chance of surviving.
3)The only thing which gives this lawsuit any legitimacy is the fact that SCO bought some UNIX licenses in the past. Everything else about it is made up of lies and contradictions:
4)The only thing that matters is what is done in court. "Cease and desist" letters, random claims of ownership of IP, threats to sue anyone and everyone, look pathetic. Despite all the fears of FUD scaring users away, most people understand this. This is why smart companies have a policy of silence during litigation.
5)Be grateful SCO's claims are so outrageous. It's as if I were to send Microsoft a letter claiming they stole some of my IP and therefore the entire company is mine. Or that some MS employee sneaked some SCO code into Windows, and therefore SCO owns all of Windows XP.
The best thing to do is point people to articles like Eric Raymond's and ANUPAM CHANDER's as well as the fact that in the first court challenge by LinuxTag, SCO backed off.
I see one fool here, and that is you. You do not "choose" to own property, owning property is the only thing that enables you to have significant choices.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger