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Novell May be Banned from Distributing Linux
Hymer writes "Reuters is reporting that Novell may be banned from selling Linux. In the wake of the (much maligned) Novell/Microsoft deal, the Free Software Foundation is reviewing Novell's right to sell the operating system at all. The foundation controls the rights to key parts of the operating system, and council for the organization said that 'the community wants to interfere any way it can' with the Novell business arrangement. No decision has yet been reached, but one should be made in the next two weeks." Is this a measured response, or an over-reaction to the Novell/Microsoft arrangement?
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1. Retype this message as a comment for 3 other stories.
Watta buncha hypocrites.
...But software which Linux uses and redistributes must be free to all (be they people or companies), for any purpose they wish to use it, including modification, use, peeing on, or even integration into baby mulching machines or atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia.
What are the FSF doing? it must be free for all, doing anything which limits the complete freedom of anyone to use the software harms the community. It is one thing to take some steps to stop them from screwing us over (which there isn't really that much proof of them doing anyway), but this goes against the fundamental beliefs of a large section of the FREE software movement.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Now you know that freedom according to FSF is just a matter of dictatorship. They just want to enforce their view of the world on others. Think twice before following those mad activists too closely... :-/
Willy
As much as there is the *potential* for problems let's be very frank about this and realize that Microsoft has not been the company doing the suing. In fact it is Microsoft that is getting sued for this, that and the other thing. I am not trying to say Microsoft is the good guy here, but say if we are going to deal with the worst case let's look at the track record.
Novell buried the war ax and maybe the Open Source community should try the same. Again I agree Microsoft might not be the best company on the block but I think we need to move beyond "Microsoft is evil" emotion.
For example, what about companies like Google? If you look at their terms of service they have the ability to shutdown your webservice whenever they please. And recently with the shutting down of their search web service replaced with "market speak" REST UI many have had to deal with the problem without being given any real option. Imagine if Microsoft had the ability to shutdown any application at any time, we would cry bloody murder and demand the head of Bill Gates.
If people push Novell too hard I predict Novell will move to FreeBSD and that would be a shame...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
You are a moron because your opinion is flawed.
The BSD style licence has it's merits and so does the GPL.
Contributors are free to chose the licence that fits best with their views and desires.
It is a moron who tries to ridicule the free choice people make.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."