13 Reasons To Celebrate the New MS-Novell Pact

An anonymous reader writes "The recently announced agreement between Microsoft Corporation and Novell, Inc. has resulted in much concern that it could be harmful for Linux and other free software. However, the agreement itself, as well as its timing and comments made by Microsoft executives about it, may actually be a very good thing — and perhaps even worthy of celebration!"

Comments

Needs More FUD

[eldavojohn]

Whoever wrote this article lives in a fantasy land full of gum drop trees and puppy dog kisses.

Not only are these points weak, they're a stretch. And number four is laughable,

(4) The agreement and accompanying threats are serving as additional bad publicity in the free software community for an increasingly troubled Microsoft, and the effect will be to further motivate developers and users of free software. People do not like to be threatened or bullied, and they can react strongly to it.

That's right, folks, this agreement will make developers so angry that they'll triumph in the face of Microsoft telling them they're all patent infringers. Yep, sound argument to me. Let's see here ... SAMBA developers very happy & OpenSUSE devs happy. In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic.

And also, some of the footnotes are pure comedic genius,

Benefitting Microsoft could be a good thing, even in the eyes of many advocates of free software, if it helps that company to reallocate its massive resources to emphasize developing truly innovative and quality products instead of attempting (increasingly in vain) to protect a doomed monopoly. These resources include its large number of very talented employees, some of whom are our friends and neighbors.

It's so funny because the way I see it, this was the perfect way to hobble Linux & threaten all the application development on it so that the competition for Windows dwindles & therefore they can produce pure crap and we'll have to use it. Please explain yourself, Linux Information Project.

A Test Of The Maturity Of The Open Source World

[Anonymous Coward]

The reaction the open source community finally arrives at as a whole will be an indication of wether or not it has matured to the point where it can function as a legitimate entity in the business world.

There are three distinct reactions to Microsoft's blatant and utterly un-subtle attack on Linux:

1) Swift and decisive public action sending a clear message to the computing and business worlds that this aggression will not stand, man. Novell software and patent minefields like mono are purged from all open source distros and entities.

2) Wallowing in ignorant self-delusion that maybe it will all go away.

3) Self-defeating and inane +5 Insightful masturbatory posts letting everyone know just what a open minded and reasonable person you are for trying to look on the bright side of this frontal assault on Linux. "Hey, Microsoft can't be ALWAYS evil...maybe they just want to be friends!"

Read groklaw.net, get informed. If you aren't scared to hell about the long term implications of this attack on Linux through patents, you haven't read enough about it.

The time for sticking your head in the sand is over. Microsoft is in open war with Linux. And no matter what you think of their products, Microsoft execs live to destroy. And they have you directly in their sights. Are you going to stand there and be slaughtered like a dumb animal or wake up and get informed and take decisive action?

In other news...

[Chaffar]

13 reasons to celebrate when people commit suicide:

1. more food for us (unless the person was a fashion model).
2. more jobs for us (unless the person was unemployed)
3. more housing available to us (unless the person was a hobo)
4. less mating opportunities available to the opposite sex (unless the person was just as much a loser as you)
5. it gives cops and forensics experts a job
6. it helps Hollywood plotlines
7. helps the environment (less strain on resources, and the body will eventually be used as fertilizer)
8. There's a 19.8% chance that he isn't white (unless you aren't white)
9. Supermarket lines will potentially be shorter.
10. There will probably be free food available at the funeral.
11. Dressing up in black suits is always cool.
12. You could take a hair comb, attach a LED to one end of it, and act as if you're from MIB.
13. If there weren't any suicides, then this list wouldn't have existed.

Re:First in a series...

[mqduck]

3. Reasons to celibrate anal rape

Well, at least they didn't get pregnant! *celebrates*

Re:Linfo.org Owned By Microsoft

[vojtech]

I would seriously doubt that.

According to the linfo.org pages, linfo is a project of the Bellevue Linux Users Group.

Checking out whois isn't always the most reliable way to figure out who is behind a site.

Would you expect this on a Microsoft-owned website?

(And yes, I do work for Novell. And I don't have much of a reason to defend the site, since most of the reasons listed don't expect Novell to survive, only to serve as a bad example.)