De Icaza Regrets Novell/Microsoft Pact

Ian Lamont writes "Novell Vice President and GNOME architect Miguel de Icaza sounded off at a MIX 08 panel on a number of topics. First, he claimed that he was 'not happy' with Novell's cross-patent licensing agreement with Microsoft, saying that if he had his way, the company would have stayed with the open-source community. He also said that neither Windows nor Linux are relevant in the long term, thanks to Web 2.0 business models: 'They might be fantastic products ... but Google has shown itself to be a cash cow. There is a feature beyond selling corporate [software] and patents ... it's going to be owning end users.' He also tangled with Mike Schroepfer, a Mozilla engineering executive, about extending patent protection for Moonlight to third parties. However, de Icaza did say that Novell has 'done the best it could to balance open-source interests with patent indemnification.' We discussed the beginnings of the deal between Microsoft and Novell back in 2006."

Comments

Google may be a cash cow now

[rastoboy29]

Google will not be a cash cow forever.  Anybody who has done business with Google via their adWords product--that is, actually paying to place ads--knows that it is a rip off.

The reason being is you cannot bid what you think something is really worth, but only what Google tells you is the minimum bid--which they decide arbitrarily, with no explanation.  So you either expose yourself to HUGE surprise bills (I've seen this happen), or you don't advertise with them at all.  But either way you have little control.

If it's not a scam, they why is it that my bizarre, unique keywords--which currently have NO search ads on search results, have a minimum bid of $10 per click?  So they will bill you--get this--somewhere between .01 cents and $10 per click.

Over time, their customers will come to realize what a scam this is (as I have) and go with their competition.  Google is a cash cow because they control both the horizontal and the vertical--there is nothing wrong with your tv set.

No, you don't HAVE to use Google adwords.  Yahoo's program is much more reasonable, and just as effective probably for most businesses.