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Novell Responds To Microsoft's IP Claims
Azul writes "Ron Hovsepian, Novell's CEO, has posted an open letter to the Community, where he explicitly states Novell's disagreement with Steve Ballmer's claims of Linux infringing on Microsoft's intellectual property. From the letter: 'We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. When we entered the patent cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.'"
I run a large academic server with Suse Linux.
We will not re-new the license. We will not
accept any updates from Novell/Suse as they
are, in our opinion, contaminated with M$ code
and are trojans for the Gate's monopoly.
The squirming note from their CEO: come-on guys
trust us! doesn't pass the sniff test. They
knew what they were doing, why they were
doing it and had a long time to decide whether
to do it. They took the M$ loot and sold the farm.
Would you trust an automatic binary update mechanism from Novell?
I always trusted Redhat's to keep me protected from vulnerabilities, and drooled over Red Carpet.
How would you feel though if Novell introduced a service like Windows Update?
How about if they ran it just like Microsoft does, rolling into critical security updates crap like Genuine Advantage to snoop how many seats you have? It seems likely that it would include DRM, which would maybe talk to secure hardware, let you play secure Microsoft video streams, secured DVDs, etc. Maybe you will not be allowed to play your legally ripped mp3s anymore. Wouldn't you look at your router from time to time to see if any packets are being sent when they shouldn't? All these things seem to be likely to come from this Novell-MS partnership. They may become the only linux distro compatible with MS DRM, but they also will be a wedge. You will see machines with this virus on it. Would you mind if your favorite distro included binary code that originated at Microsoft?
Personally the idea that Windows Update would come to linux, or that a tool meant to increase security against crackers could be turned against the people who own the hardware, is anathema and that whole mindset is a major reason I hate using windows. I forgo DRM'd stuff and boycott DRM vendors. I would like to see Novell's CEO stand up and promise (not that I trust him as far as he could throw a chair) that the above scenario will never happen with their products.
Yeah, until somebody from Novell contributes something to the linux kernel - and then RedHat uses it, and M$ sues the snot out of them. I realize every decent open source developer works on the honor code - where they can't contribute code after seeing source from a closed source vendor. Think back to the NTFS in the linux kernel debacle from a few years back. I can see some jerk-off from Novell doing this intentially to open the flood gates for M$ litigation. Does anybody else think this is possible? I realize that if some tainted code was found in the kernel, it can be removed like it was with the NTFS stuff, but by then somebody could get sued.
If I remember correctly Samba team was doing this interoperability and gues what ? They doesn't need that $200m cash even they do their jobs withouth accessing Microsoft Networking code...
Mr.CEO of Novell. Take your arguments and put them where are they come. We do not believe who bedding with Microsoft.
Your company was DEAD. Your Distro was DEAD. You are History. We are bury you near SCO.
Regards
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]