If they release it open source, it is open source. It doesn't matter who has a copyright on it. No one can touch you then.
But that isn't how the Microsoft/Novell deal is working. They have a signed patent agreement protecting both companies from law suits. MS can't sue them over those patents, period.
On top of that, the Mono and Moonlight team are not only releasing GPL code, they own the copyright to the code.
Microsoft is providing technical specifications, but Novell is doing all their own coding so they own it 100%.
openSUSE also has a lightweight version with the LXDE desktop, and an XFCE desktop.
DSL can run Linux with 32 megs of memory.
My point about migration is migrating your workflow processes and data.
If you're files are in Microsoft Office format, and your Linux distro can't open them, then you can't really switch to Linux without losing your data.
Novell is the one pushing the most with integrating with existing Microsoft products to allow people to take their data with them, or work alongside Windows boxes.
Mono also provides a.NET alternative in Linux, so you can take your.NET apps and run them in Linux.
I'm worried that Microsoft could try to claim that it proves Linux as-is infringes on Microsoft patents. However, does Microsoft really want a lengthy SCO-type trial?
Linus has said he's pretty sure there is prior art for anything Microsoft would try to claim.
In the end, it infused Novell with cash (which they needed) and gave Novell security that they wouldn't be sued.
Personally, I don't think Microsoft really can start a massive patent war against Linux on the whole because the EU has already twice dropped massive fines on them, and said if they didn't work on interoperability (which I think led to the Novell deal) the EU would ban the sale of Microsoft products in the EU.
Microsoft's hands are somewhat tied here. They can try a little FUD every now and then, but they can't do much damage.
I'm not saying Ubuntu should be proud. I'm just defending my earlier point that Ubuntu tends to live a little closer to the bleeding edge.
malzfreund responded suggesting openSUSE is bleeding edge because they release newer versions of GCC. Ubuntu 10.04 shipped with GCC 4.4.3 in April and openSUSE 11.3 just shipped with GCC 4.5, both of which were the stable version of GCC at the time. Neither were major overhauls or big changes.
However, Ubuntu did push major changes with PulseAudio, Grub2, Upstart, etc. In each case, there was some backlash they pushed these things a little too early.
I believe openSUSE made a decision to move to an 8 month release cycle where as many other distros are doing 6 month release cycles. They feel they can pack in more features, and have plenty of time to test.
openSUSE has tried to let many of these bake and stabilize first. Even in this openSUSE 11.3 release, Upstart and grub2 are optional.
The weird thing is that in the last Ubuntu LTS release, they didn't want to ship a bleeding edge Xorg release, but they wanted all the bleeding edge features, so they tried to backport them all and just broke things.
I understand those sentiments. However, as a Linux advocate, I want Linux to grow and succeed. Part of that means that people need migration paths from Microsoft solutions to Linux solutions. Novell seems to be the one company working on interoperability and migration paths to help people.
In striking the patent deal, it helps protect Novell as they work on Samba, Mono, etc. which in turn open the door for enterprise environments to integrate Linux in a Windows envrionment.
Not to mention, since openSUSE is free (as in beer) you're not financially supporting Novell. If you don't donate or contribute back, you're actually adding to their financial burdern.
openSUSE is also community driven, so you're really spiting the community more than Novell.
My wife uses one account for her political career and one account for personal email.
I have one Gmail account for personal email, and one for the Omaha Nighthawks Fan Club. I could tell people to email me at my address for the fan club, but it makes more sense to keep those emails in a seperate account that I could hand over to someone else in the future.
I'd like to be able to check both email accounts easily and quickly.
I've seen videos from Wired and Engadget of picking up the phone and letting it rest comfortable in your hand where the signal goes from 4 bars to No Signal.
Even the most ardent Pro-Apple sites have confirmed in their testing that this is a serious problem.
Real-world tests by Wired, Engadget, etc. all show that you can have 4 bars and great signal. Hold the phone and have zero signal.
What real-world use are you talking about? I'm not even activating my iPhone 4 until I get my bumper in the mail I just ordered.
I also hate this notion that Apple products always just work. iTunes has wiped music, ringtones and such from my phone multiple times. It crashes all the time. It messes up tags on my MP3s and stripped away album artwork so it won't display correctly in Windows Media Player.
I have app crashes on my phone. The email app still leaves a lot to be desired. I'm missing basic crucial functionality. Contacts can be in groups, except there is no way to put contacts in groups on the phone.
Apple products are not nearly as perfect as people make them out to be.
"learn a new way to hold a phone" means don't hold the phone how we hold it in every commercial/ad for the iPhone 4, where they touch the bottom left. - Steve
Your payment processor said PayPal doesn't offer dispute resolution. We have a large team that does nothing but dispute resolution. So I know we offer it.
So you didn't go through PayPal, and your payment processor didn't fight to protect you, so that is PayPal's fault?
PayPal and eBay are linked at the hip. eBay makes their money off sellers, but if buyers aren't happy, then it is hard to sell anything.
PayPal and eBay had tried to straddle a line of making sellers happy, and making buyers happy. They lean back and forth across that line.
I can tell you this. We spend a fortune on customer service centers. We go nuts going over customer service metrics, and we're investing even more. It is a huge focus within the company, to try and keep everyone happy. I work in IT, don't talk to customers, and I see get emails about verbatim comments from our customers.
We also ask third party companies to gather information and tell us how we're doing when it comes to customer service.
I can also tell you that when there is a dispute, PayPal doesn't just simply tell sellers to fuck off. We have groups that just focus on dispute resolution.
PayPal did have a proper bank before way back in the day. It was the first online bank, called X.com I do believe. X.com is now used for developer tools.
Banks are regulated differently. I know PayPal has looked at trying to either have a proper bank back end again, but hasn't yet. Banks aren't seen in a very positive light right now, which may be part of the decision Walmart also stopped their efforts at forming a bank.
I've only been with PayPal for 8 months. She got caught in a phishing scheme years ago. I had no influence on the events. PayPal contacted the banks that handled her checking account and credit cards, and had all the charges reversed in 3 days.
The OP suggested they are evil because they don't provide fraud protection. They do, and have for years. They also actively go after people for phishing scams.
If there is something evil about the company I work for, I'd like to know. It would certainly influence my decision to continue working there or not. But so far, I haven't seen anything actually evil about the company.
I don't appreciate being called a liar. I've used one handle online my entire life and hide basically nothing. I back up my words and don't try to hide behind any anonymity.
Do you doubt that I work for PayPal, or that my mother fell for a phishing scheme? Both I'd be happy to prove to you.
I have a friend who has worked in Fraud for years and years. I wouldn't call him evil or a dick. In fact, he's one of the better people I know. He went through training to become a Sheriff so he could help people even more, but PayPal ended up bringing him back to work for them.
When people tell me their account was closed for "bullshit reasons", the most common cause for that is someone putting up a PayPal donation link, claiming their site is a non-profit/charity, and not getting off their ass to file paperwork with PayPal. In that case, PayPal is only upholding federal law because we're heavily regulated.
In fact, I've seen two different stories on Slashdot about PayPal locking accounts of FOSS companies over that very reason. There isn't much we can about federal laws.
However, if you think you've got a legitimate gripe, email me at enderandrew at gmail dot com and I'll talk to people at work.
Slashdot Mirror
If they release it open source, it is open source. It doesn't matter who has a copyright on it. No one can touch you then.
But that isn't how the Microsoft/Novell deal is working. They have a signed patent agreement protecting both companies from law suits. MS can't sue them over those patents, period.
On top of that, the Mono and Moonlight team are not only releasing GPL code, they own the copyright to the code.
Microsoft is providing technical specifications, but Novell is doing all their own coding so they own it 100%.
openSUSE also has a lightweight version with the LXDE desktop, and an XFCE desktop.
DSL can run Linux with 32 megs of memory.
My point about migration is migrating your workflow processes and data.
If you're files are in Microsoft Office format, and your Linux distro can't open them, then you can't really switch to Linux without losing your data.
Novell is the one pushing the most with integrating with existing Microsoft products to allow people to take their data with them, or work alongside Windows boxes.
Mono also provides a .NET alternative in Linux, so you can take your .NET apps and run them in Linux.
Yes, actually. IE9 uses DirectDraw and your graphics card to render fonts smoother and faster. Firefox has a similar project in the works.
I'm worried that Microsoft could try to claim that it proves Linux as-is infringes on Microsoft patents. However, does Microsoft really want a lengthy SCO-type trial?
Linus has said he's pretty sure there is prior art for anything Microsoft would try to claim.
In the end, it infused Novell with cash (which they needed) and gave Novell security that they wouldn't be sued.
Personally, I don't think Microsoft really can start a massive patent war against Linux on the whole because the EU has already twice dropped massive fines on them, and said if they didn't work on interoperability (which I think led to the Novell deal) the EU would ban the sale of Microsoft products in the EU.
Microsoft's hands are somewhat tied here. They can try a little FUD every now and then, but they can't do much damage.
I'm not saying Ubuntu should be proud. I'm just defending my earlier point that Ubuntu tends to live a little closer to the bleeding edge.
malzfreund responded suggesting openSUSE is bleeding edge because they release newer versions of GCC. Ubuntu 10.04 shipped with GCC 4.4.3 in April and openSUSE 11.3 just shipped with GCC 4.5, both of which were the stable version of GCC at the time. Neither were major overhauls or big changes.
However, Ubuntu did push major changes with PulseAudio, Grub2, Upstart, etc. In each case, there was some backlash they pushed these things a little too early.
I believe openSUSE made a decision to move to an 8 month release cycle where as many other distros are doing 6 month release cycles. They feel they can pack in more features, and have plenty of time to test.
Ubuntu shipped Upstart first. Ubuntu shipped grub2 first. Ubuntu shipped ext4 first. Ubuntu shipped PulseAudio first.
openSUSE has tried to let many of these bake and stabilize first. Even in this openSUSE 11.3 release, Upstart and grub2 are optional.
The weird thing is that in the last Ubuntu LTS release, they didn't want to ship a bleeding edge Xorg release, but they wanted all the bleeding edge features, so they tried to backport them all and just broke things.
I understand those sentiments. However, as a Linux advocate, I want Linux to grow and succeed. Part of that means that people need migration paths from Microsoft solutions to Linux solutions. Novell seems to be the one company working on interoperability and migration paths to help people.
In striking the patent deal, it helps protect Novell as they work on Samba, Mono, etc. which in turn open the door for enterprise environments to integrate Linux in a Windows envrionment.
Not to mention, since openSUSE is free (as in beer) you're not financially supporting Novell. If you don't donate or contribute back, you're actually adding to their financial burdern.
openSUSE is also community driven, so you're really spiting the community more than Novell.
Out of the box? Were you running the same video drivers?
Fedora tends to be running bleeding edge snapshot builds of Xorg, Mesa, etc. lately so that might have something to do with it.
It isn't as bleeding edge as Ubuntu, but the releases aren't nearly as broken.
openSUSE has give us Compiz, Moonlight, Office 2007 support in OpenOffice, Exchange support in Evolution, Samba, etc.
It is my distro of choice. And I also really like that they focus on putting out both really solid KDE and Gnome desktops.
Take the cost of Windows. Reduce it by 100% and you get free, which is the price of openSUSE.
Math is hard.
My wife uses one account for her political career and one account for personal email.
I have one Gmail account for personal email, and one for the Omaha Nighthawks Fan Club. I could tell people to email me at my address for the fan club, but it makes more sense to keep those emails in a seperate account that I could hand over to someone else in the future.
I'd like to be able to check both email accounts easily and quickly.
I've seen videos from Wired and Engadget of picking up the phone and letting it rest comfortable in your hand where the signal goes from 4 bars to No Signal.
Even the most ardent Pro-Apple sites have confirmed in their testing that this is a serious problem.
No I dual-boot for gaming.
I actually hate many of the Mac OS X conventions and interface (especially you Finder!) and I have no interest in paying a premium on Mac hardware.
The day they release iTunes for Linux I'll stop using it on Windows.
If you're an AT&T user, the Samsung Captivate looks amazing, but they haven't given a release date yet.
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/samsung-captivate.jsp
Real-world tests by Wired, Engadget, etc. all show that you can have 4 bars and great signal. Hold the phone and have zero signal.
What real-world use are you talking about? I'm not even activating my iPhone 4 until I get my bumper in the mail I just ordered.
I also hate this notion that Apple products always just work. iTunes has wiped music, ringtones and such from my phone multiple times. It crashes all the time. It messes up tags on my MP3s and stripped away album artwork so it won't display correctly in Windows Media Player.
I have app crashes on my phone. The email app still leaves a lot to be desired. I'm missing basic crucial functionality. Contacts can be in groups, except there is no way to put contacts in groups on the phone.
Apple products are not nearly as perfect as people make them out to be.
"learn a new way to hold a phone" means don't hold the phone how we hold it in every commercial/ad for the iPhone 4, where they touch the bottom left. - Steve
I say this as a guy who purchased an iPhone 4, but Apple is never your friend.
They are right up there with Microsoft on the evil scale.
Your payment processor said PayPal doesn't offer dispute resolution. We have a large team that does nothing but dispute resolution. So I know we offer it.
So you didn't go through PayPal, and your payment processor didn't fight to protect you, so that is PayPal's fault?
PayPal and eBay are linked at the hip. eBay makes their money off sellers, but if buyers aren't happy, then it is hard to sell anything.
PayPal and eBay had tried to straddle a line of making sellers happy, and making buyers happy. They lean back and forth across that line.
I can tell you this. We spend a fortune on customer service centers. We go nuts going over customer service metrics, and we're investing even more. It is a huge focus within the company, to try and keep everyone happy. I work in IT, don't talk to customers, and I see get emails about verbatim comments from our customers.
We also ask third party companies to gather information and tell us how we're doing when it comes to customer service.
I can also tell you that when there is a dispute, PayPal doesn't just simply tell sellers to fuck off. We have groups that just focus on dispute resolution.
PayPal did have a proper bank before way back in the day. It was the first online bank, called X.com I do believe. X.com is now used for developer tools.
Banks are regulated differently. I know PayPal has looked at trying to either have a proper bank back end again, but hasn't yet. Banks aren't seen in a very positive light right now, which may be part of the decision Walmart also stopped their efforts at forming a bank.
I've only been with PayPal for 8 months. She got caught in a phishing scheme years ago. I had no influence on the events. PayPal contacted the banks that handled her checking account and credit cards, and had all the charges reversed in 3 days.
Their fraud policies are one Google search away.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/buy/Protection-outside
The OP suggested they are evil because they don't provide fraud protection. They do, and have for years. They also actively go after people for phishing scams.
If there is something evil about the company I work for, I'd like to know. It would certainly influence my decision to continue working there or not. But so far, I haven't seen anything actually evil about the company.
I don't appreciate being called a liar. I've used one handle online my entire life and hide basically nothing. I back up my words and don't try to hide behind any anonymity.
Do you doubt that I work for PayPal, or that my mother fell for a phishing scheme? Both I'd be happy to prove to you.
I have a friend who has worked in Fraud for years and years. I wouldn't call him evil or a dick. In fact, he's one of the better people I know. He went through training to become a Sheriff so he could help people even more, but PayPal ended up bringing him back to work for them.
When people tell me their account was closed for "bullshit reasons", the most common cause for that is someone putting up a PayPal donation link, claiming their site is a non-profit/charity, and not getting off their ass to file paperwork with PayPal. In that case, PayPal is only upholding federal law because we're heavily regulated.
In fact, I've seen two different stories on Slashdot about PayPal locking accounts of FOSS companies over that very reason. There isn't much we can about federal laws.
However, if you think you've got a legitimate gripe, email me at enderandrew at gmail dot com and I'll talk to people at work.