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Post-Novell Interview With Jeremy Allison
schestowitz notes an
interview with Jeremy Allison, of Samba fame, after he had left Novell in protest
over the company's deal with Microsoft. From the interview: "My guess is that the negotiations for the useful parts of the agreement (the virtualization part and the federated directory interoperability part) had, as Ron [Hovsepian] says, been going on for months and just before Novell wanted to seal the deal Microsoft turned up with 'there's just this one more thing we want you to sign...' and in desperation to get the other parts of the deal done they rushed it through."
'there's just this one more thing we want you to sign...' and in desperation to get the other parts of the deal done they rushed it through." What was so great about the rest of the deal? It seems to me that someone at Novell had something to gain personally.
Being "clueless" does not exclude being "a really nice guy".
Personally, I believe that he knew exactly what he was doing and decided to sell out to Microsoft for a LOT of money anyway.
Yep. He sold out to Microsoft for a LOT of money.
And that is why Hovsepian is clueless.
He could have gotten a LOT MORE MONEY for selling out. He could have gotten over a BILLION dollars. Instead, he settled for a couple hundred million and the death of Novell.
Jeremy Allison; professional, ethical, courteous, thoughtful yet concise. It's almost enough to restore my faith in humanity. Happy new year dude.
Is MS going to start suing SAMBA for using SMB? Maybe that's why MS got Novell to sign the agreement--it would be the only distribution that can interoperate legally with MS technology like SMB and MS Word/Office formats.
""My guess is that the negotiations for the useful parts of the agreement (the virtualization part and the federated directory interoperability part) had, as Ron [Hovsepian' says, been going on for months and just before Novell wanted to seal the deal Microsoft turned up with 'there's just this one more thing we want you to sign...' and in desperation to get the other parts of the deal done they rushed it through.""
OK. So when will we get to the facts then?
Microsoft recently bought SAMBA.
COWARD. Him leaving will do nothing to Microsoft/Novell. He should've stayed and tried to destroy them from the inside, guerrila style.
And of course, the interview is published at the impartial "Boycott Novell" site.
Way to go!
M$ is just looking for a backdoor to bring "premium content" players in the linux world. Novell has always been that backdoor. Bring .NET in the OSS world, remove KDE, etc. This is how this company makes money. Oh, and making windows look stable compared to what they give out as linux.
From TFA, on how the deal can be GPLv2-legal and still wrong:
If you're screwing over some of your major suppliers by following what your lawyers see as the letter of a license, not the good faith intent of the license, then you can't expect those suppliers to say "well done, you really tricked us on that one.....".
$400M is a lot of money in the Linux world. I am even thinking that the size of the amount may be the cause of the jealous backslash that Novell has suffered from the Linux community, more than any part of the deal itself.
It's true that $2B was really nice for Sun, but consider this. Sun is used to making a lot money. Or at least was used to it. Giving $2B to Novell would be like giving a $10,000 to a minimum wage worker. It doesn't make sense. It hurts them, it breaks their world. They won't come back to work. But to a professional, it's alright. It fits.
I hope you understand.
He doesnt know the full story but he quit his job in protest? If I were going to quit my job to make some kind of a statement I would want to be able to give an interview about it that started with something other than "My guess is that..."
Speaking as an AC, I'm sick of all the ad hominem. I'm going to make this guy a generous offer for his domain and CNAME /.
"He could have gotten a LOT MORE MONEY for selling out. He could have gotten over a BILLION dollars. Instead, he settled for a couple hundred million and the death of Novell."
Well AC, now you understand my reaction. Still think I'm wrong?
Of course not. They'd be just as biased.
Fox News should interview Jeremy Allison, since Fox News is fair and balanced. Their press releases say so, so it must be true.
I read that Windows Vista uses SMB2. Is this a change to make the protocol better or is it just a change to make life difficult for Samba? Maybe Microsoft was required to explain the details of SMB1 in the antitrust proceedings. No problem they figured we'll just make a new protocol and it will take ten years for the courts to make us to release that. Brahhaaa.
He received 778,470 shares of stock awarded 12/20/06. http://money.cnn.com/quote/insiders/insiders.html? symb=NOVL
From this page you can see he's historically not a big holder: http://money.cnn.com/quote/insiders/insiders.html? symb=NOVL&mode=person&pid=101687
778,470 @ $6.20 is $4,826,514. No doubt he was hoping for more presents under his tree. Perhaps there will be more for him after the dust settles. Certainly would have been nice for him if the Street had liked the deal and he got a good bump. Too bad.
It's interesting that seven of ten managers listed here are new to the company in 2006, and almost all are new in the last 18 months: http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NOVL
If I were a stockholder looking at that, and the recent change of course in the company, I might be concerned. The theme is familiar, but I can't remember where I saw it before... Maybe someone else will reply with that answer.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Also, the company is having some trouble filing reports with the SEC, presumably because of options grants. http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=24382
Just days before this deal was announced they had an interesting 8K report filed: http://money.cnn.com/quote/sec/sec.html?symb=NOVL& sequenceid=1&guid=4732459
They owed a ton of cash that was due in 2024, but callable in the event they failed timely filing of reports with the SEC. Apparently that Microsoft money saved their bacon on that one, since immediately after the deal was done it was reported the money had already been paid out to debtors. Their SEC reports should make interesting reading for some time to come.
Being paranoid, though, I wonder if their accountants or the debtor or both aren't beholden to Microsoft's business interests in some way. That would be really scary.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I don't know why we don't hear more about things like this: http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1159 567622720
FTA:
And then there's the spectre of delisting: http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3941903118.html
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I guess I was wrong about Novell. I first saw the deal as a benefit to Linux because I thought it would help provide better compatibility (maybe MS Office for Linux) and give Linux another notch up on the status ladder. After reading this article though, I'm willing to admit I was wrong. Mr. Allison put things into perspective quite eloquently.
This is going to sound trollish, and I don't condone the MS-Novell deal myself, but personally I think Allison is being arrogant and highly juvenile over this. I've also said elsewhere that I feel he is seriously overestimating his own importance if he thinks his resignation is actually going to matter, or dissuade Novell from continuing in the agreement.
I'm also deeply sick of reading about Bruce Perens displaying the attitude that the entire rest of the planet has to conform with his expectations. Who exactly do you think you are, Bruce? Calling on people to leave a place of employment strongly implies that you consider yourself an authority figure of some type.
Microsoft are well advanced in the process of digging their own grave. The Linux community does not need to risk damaging itself by attempting to accelerate the process. Microsoft have been given more than enough rope, and at this stage in the game, if left to their own devices, will more than happily proceed to hang themselves.
The real problem with so many Linux people that I'm seeing is fear...you absolutely reek of it. You see terminal threats under every rock, and you think that if you're not constantly trying to push them over a cliff somehow, that everything you hold dear yourselves will be destroyed. It's the activism and juvenile chest beating in itself which is actually more damaging to the cause than anything else...and having chronic narcissists with God complexes like Perens around also really doesn't help.
What a bunch of FUD. I admit there is potential for some evil doings against the GPL and Suse by Microsoft. However, nothing has happened yet--or has it? So stop predicting the worst and always remember, "If you're going to San Francisco be sure to wear flowers in your hair."
Hi Jeremy!
It does seem sick to name a minor white-collar crime after an illegal industry that's based on recruiting the ignorant and poverty-stricken to a life of murder and rapine.
I wonder if Disney Inc. has ever considered sending some profit from their "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise to help overcome the economic conditions that make REAL piracy a going concern. I doubt it has ever even occurred to them.
Yo, ho, ho, and a bucket of scum....
Totally OT, I chatted with you once or twice about using Pegasus email with samba, and the hacks that've evolved over the years. David Harris has a notice up stating he's thinking about killing Pegasus off - which is quite a change since the 2005 notice that he was considering an Open-Source rewrite.