12.02.07
Pick Your (Patent) Poison
Now available in three wonderful flavors
The interesting news from Spain is that Novell will divide Mono into chunks which correspond to different logical units.
First, [Mono,] the open source organization, sponsored by Novell, decided to separate the source code into three chunks: ECMA Core, Server and Desktop.
Be reminded that Mono presents a software patents dilemma [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] and also be aware that GPLv3 was designed to provide patent protection through Novell’s distribution of GNU/Linux. The latest report from Palamida suggests that adoption of GPLv3 is still steady and strong. Moreover, cautiousness and hesitation about GPLv3 appear to be declining quickly.
Lastly, the GPLv2 or later count is now at 6286 GPLv2 or later projects, as compared to last weeks number of 6119 GPL v2 or later projects.
It appears as though GPLv3 FUD, which Microsoft has spread using its proxies, is growing very thin and ineffective. A fortnight ago I noticed a blog post from a WordPress member of staff. He said that choosing GPLv3 was just a matter of waiting and watching what others do. This suggests that the ‘cattle phenomenon’ — as insulting as it might sounds — is likely to play a significant role when comes to squashing unnecessary doubts. People look at other people rather than study the licence. █
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.