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Open Addict calls for Boycott of Novell
openaddict.com — If you are using Suse, please remove it and use a Free version of Linux like Debian or Slackware. I'm calling for a boycott of all software, services and products Novell. Don't purchase, license or download any Novell Linux or software products as long as Novell is in violation of the GPL. R.I.P. Suse
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- trashlikeyou, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Oh man, as much as I agree I just installed SLED 10 on my laptop last night....
- rlmorgan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I know, I've been running openSuse 10.1 on my laptop for a few months now. But this is wrong and I'm not going to stand for it. I'm going back to Slackware tonight.
- shrewduser, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8wooah... holfd on a tick... suse still doesn't ship with propriatry stuff installed.... what on earth is everyone's prob?
- Oakes, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6You don't need to uninstall it. They even admit that they "don't know how Novell is planning to circumvent the GPL." What's more, the "join the FSF" link has a referrer id in the URL.
But don't let that stop them from shouting that "Microsoft is now assaulting the walls of the OSS stronghold." Someone's been watching Lord of the Rings a few too many times. - MeltedUFO, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I have also installed Sled 10 on my laptop recently and will uninstall it immediately because novell is evil and their software is suddenly violating the GPL because they made a deal with Microsoft.
/sarcasm - mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I would, except SLED10 is the best working distro for my Thinkpad, since it is officially supported by Lenovo.
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4How about Ubuntu or one of its brethren? It's the best distro I've used so far.
- internetworld7, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0I believe a much better solution is to dumb all Linsux OS's and get Vista! You know you want to. :)
- Waterrat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6 I was reading a SUSE forum to get users take on this,but not very many have announced they are leaving...Still,I would not be surprised if a goodly number move to other distros over this.
it's more than a little disturbing.- baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4RE:["but not very many have announced they are leaving"]
never burn a bridge before you are done using it...
- baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4RE:["but not very many have announced they are leaving"]
- XVampireX, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6I went to #suse in freenode yesterday and they banned me because I told everyone to boycott both novell and microsoft...
- VorpalK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12And this suprises you?
- metalhead3767, on 10/12/2007, -8/+8I use SuSE and I think this is great. Microsoft working with linux for better virtualization. More MS stuff supported in linux. This is just going to make linux more popular.
- psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4did u even read the deal terms ? y is every deal between ms and linux cos automatically about virtualization ?
this has more to with open-source software running on windows.
i've ditched my suse. my /home partition was seperate. so it took me a total of 30mins to have ubuntu installed and configured and ready to go.
- psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4did u even read the deal terms ? y is every deal between ms and linux cos automatically about virtualization ?
- elv1s77, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9OSS FSF GPL RIP, this article needs more acronyms
- MattJF317, on 10/12/2007, -13/+9Ubuntu. That's all I'm saying
- Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Debian. That's all I'm saying.
- NiX0n, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I believe a lawsuit is in order...
- baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6it is possible...
If Novell is not very very careful what they do with GPLed software (Suse) they could find themselves in violation of the GNU/GPL and lose the rights to distribute GNU/Linux...
this has rubbed against the grain of the GNU/GPL and i bet Groklaw will be keeping a close eye on this...
- baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6it is possible...
- kiranlightpaw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Could someone explain to me how SuSE and Novell will violate the GPL?
Not trying to be a dick - I'm genuinely curious.- hobophobe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The speculation is that if Novell incorporates patent-defiled code (ie, non-free) into existing GPL'd code, it taints it. The GPL specifies that if you can't distribute the code without such stains on it, then you can't distribute it period.
The part that isn't clear, though, is what a MS license to Novell on patents would actually mean in the context of the GPL. It certainly seems like if they knowingly license someone to incorporate patent-related code into a GPL'd work they effectively grant all GPL'd code a license to use the patented methods.
(In other words, if they say you can use in program A, and A is GPL, and therefore you can distribute... then since B is also GPL you can reuse code from A...and since the code being there would violate GPL unless the patent license follows the code and not the party it was given to, it's basically a patent nullifier).
Bottom line is that it's all speculation at this point and I think it's way too early to call Novell sellouts over this; they've not given indication of being stupid before, don't see why they would start being stupid now.
- hobophobe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The speculation is that if Novell incorporates patent-defiled code (ie, non-free) into existing GPL'd code, it taints it. The GPL specifies that if you can't distribute the code without such stains on it, then you can't distribute it period.
- sk545, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yeah, can someone explain this in English? What really happened?
- drag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Novell went into a cross licensing deal with Microsoft.
Novell won't sue Microsoft for patent violations and Microsoft won't sue Novell and won't sue individual linux developers who are doing their work for no money.
In addition they are going to work together to improve Office XML support for OpenOffice.org and are going to work together to improve Linux compatability with Windows.
The bad part is that Novell is claiming that by buying their product they are providing protection against any sort of Microsoft patent infringment for their customers. But under the GPL license this sort of thing is bogus because it means that they are going to be charging for a additional license to GPL'd software and the protection doesn't apply to other users of the same GPL'd software.
So if Microsoft sues Redhat and Redhat sues Novell then Novell could possibly loose the right to distribute GPL'd software due to the licensing violation.
But this is only theory and doesn't nessicarially make sense. It's going to take a long time before people figure out all the actual ramifactions and to what extent all of this new Microsoft cross-licensing stuff go.
It's kinda of screwing over any non-Novell developers because it helps to legitimize software patents, in other words make it easier for Microsoft to punk Redhat or Ubuntu or whatnot.
Needless to say this is what reactionaries are reacting to. They don't trust Microsoft AT ALL.
Personally I don't think it's a big deal. I think that there may be extra things that Microsoft slipped in there that may end up screwing over Novell, but nobody else.
- drag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Novell went into a cross licensing deal with Microsoft.
- drag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5""No way am I digging this, SuSE is the only distro that my video card, sound card AND wifi worked out of the box.""
Yes definately. I agree with you 100%
One of the major reasons that Ubuntu is so usable and does wifi so well compared to how it used to do is due in large part to the work that Novell had done in improving Gnome and wifi support.
You know network-manager? Novell.
So don't boycott them. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. They are a decent corporation as far as corporations go, they just made a big mistake and it's going to cost them plenty without anybody doing anything.
Microsoft will do all the biting that Novell will ever need...- MeltedUFO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I agree. Novell has worked so much on GNOME and even a lot of the applications most linux distros depend on like Evolution, which is actually Novell Evolution, Firefox: which it is the #2 contributor, and OpenOffice, which it is also the Number 2 contributor. And even XGL/Compiz was created by Novell. Boycotting them is just not a good idea.
- psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3maybe the reason why the wifi and sound and video works is beacuase novell includes proprietory stuff in the distro. and ubuntu/debian are completely free distros with no non-free software at all.
- Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"And even XGL/Compiz was created by Novell. Boycotting them is just not a good idea." Yeah probably one of the most revolutionary peices of software in terms of eye candy for Linux which makes it up to par with Mac OSX and surpasses Windows... you just can't boycott a company that gives so much to linux.
- johnnybuoy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1man, SUSE didn't work on nothing. All they do is pay a few programmers to start some project, then the project is taken over by opensource. NetworkManager has not been in novell's hands since version 0.2.
- MeltedUFO, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I think that all Linux distros are getting to close to going against the GPL. I think we should boycott all Linux distros. That will teach them a lesson. I think I will uninstall everything from my computer. I'll be happy with my useless piece of hardware.
Because Linux is more about contracts than providing a free, useful, alternative operating system. - whiteguysamurai, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Way to associate the OSS community with metal illness, who gives a crap?
- benplaut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Metal illness? What is that, rust?
- lawmaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Telling other people what they should or should not do is allways tricky. Especialy if you don't show any good argument or evidence to support your claims. It's even worse if you show uncertainity - "I don't know how Novell is planning to circumvent the GPL".
It's usually better to present the people with thorough description of the situation and let _them_ decide, what to do about it. - GravisZro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0no facts, just accusations. this is FUD.
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