06.11.07
Novell and Xandros Hit by the GPL Cluebat
In a couple of new items — one is an interview and another is a column — Novell and Xandros get a little piece of people’s minds. The first one comes from no-one other than Alax Cox, who is one of the most promoninet Linux kernel hackers. He is also the man who recently gave somewhat of a nod of approval to GPLv3. Here is what he has to say about Novell:
Personally I think it’s [Novell’s deal with Microsoft] a bad idea and that Novell are going to get stung by the GPLv3, and rightfully so. The license is designed to keep the software free, if it fails to do this then it needs fixing, so GPLv3 hopefully will fix this flaw.
Novell has nobody to blame by itself. It should have known what it was getting into. The management entered an absurd partnership and sealed an even more absurd deal.
Xandros did not escape harsh comments, either. Have a look at this advice to the CEO, who is being encouraged to “sell potatoes”.
It’s amusing to note that a man [Xandros CEO] becomes a recognisable public figure only after he’s signed a deal that could well mean the demise of his company. Strange indeed are the ways of mega-corporations.
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Incredibly, a patent cross-licensing deal was signed without once discussing patents. Now how could anyone imagine that people would talk about patents when they were signing such a deal? Silly me!
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.