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Kevin Carmony Responds, Linspire on Permanent Feature Freeze for GPLv3 Software

It appears as though Mr. Carmony decided to defend his position and shed some light on the pressing issues. Speaking to DesktopLinux, he explains where things stands. You can read the whole conversation which contains some dross and marketing drivel, but one one part which stands out is this:

"As for the GPLv3, our agreement [with Microsoft] was designed to incorporate and be flexible around this new license. (No coupons, etc.)," concluded Carmony.


All righty! In other words, Kevin seems to confirm that his distribution is intended and bound to stay stuck in GPLv2 (2007). He confirms that he deal with Microsoft had this provision. He confirms, for example, that no longer will his product incorporate changes made to Samba (however critical they might be). This was not a smart business move. Novell could at least argue that it would continue to distribute and deliver GPLv3-licensed software to its clients (working around Microsoft).

Matt Hartley has just published a short piece which might as well demonstrate the fact that any Linux distributor that enters negotiations with Microsoft is simply committing suicide. The author also explains the absurdity of such moves.

These companies were given access to thousands of man hours worth of code and software, and they repay this kindness by outwardly betraying the license that made this possible for them in the first place.


I would replace the word "thousands" with "millions". The cost of developing Debian (had it been built in a commercial setting) is flabbergasting. Reports have been put together to show this.

Hopefully, at the end of the day, someone is at least counting some cash and planning a one-way journey to Maui. It's neither the users nor the developers.

Remember Pamela's analogy? Selling your mother's blood?

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