03.04.07
Novell Boycotts Prove to Be Effective
Among the sites which explicitly called for a Novell boycott (e.g. Blogspot’s boycott-suse, OpenAddict), BoycottNovell.com appears to be the only site which has remained active. Launched in November 2006, the site has served hundreds of thousands of pages, which got its message out. While BoycottNovell.com can’t take credit for anything — as it is clearly a community effort — a new ECT article validates the assumption that Novell is still being frowned upon in the Linux community. The headline states “Linux Community Still Outraged by Novell Pact”.
Leaders of the open source movement are at work on a legal strategy that could let Novell retain the benefits of the deal, while preventing Microsoft from using it to attack other open source firms. They’re drafting a new version of the General Public License or GPL, the Free Software Foundation’s legal rulebook, which governs how Linux and other open source code can be used.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Doug Charles said,
March 4, 2007 at 3:01 am
“BoycottNovell.com appears to be the only site which has remained active.”
Nope, doesn’t appear to be very effective. The FSF types continues to isolate themselves from open source.
Ian said,
March 5, 2007 at 9:47 am
Just to provide a bit of balance and a some food for thought. If Novell folds, my shop will go 100% Microsoft. Not out of spite, but because I won’t be able to stop it. Novell is the only thing keeping Redmond from ruling our server room. Novell is the only company that can compete with Microsoft within the scope of our requirements.
Draconishinobi said,
March 6, 2007 at 12:40 am
And Red Hat, can’t … why ? who knows …
Ian said,
March 6, 2007 at 8:23 am
Red Hat doesn’t have anything that can come close to GroupWise or Exchange. OpenExchange and some of the other “open” alternatives aren’t good enough. Red Hat’s directory server isn’t as mature or flexible as eDirectory. Although, for what it’s worth, Active Directory is a cludge. Zenworks, even with its bugs, has no equal. How about Identity management? Does Red Hat dabble there?
Those are some hefty differences or deficiencies depending on what you’re looking at. The groupware part of it is the biggest thing which would push us to Microsoft.
Rich Morgan said,
July 10, 2007 at 10:36 am
Hey, we’re still active over at Open Addict. Our stance on free software and the Microsoft/Novell deal is still the same. It just isn’t the only thing we talk about. Now we’ve got the Xandros/Microsoft deal to contend with…
Anyway, just to reiterate, Open Addict is still firmly against any deal that could compromise the freedom established with the GPL.
Roy Schestowitz said,
July 10, 2007 at 11:53 am
Thanks, Richard. It’s good to have your backing. I suppose that by “active” I meant “not dormant”, referring to updates.