08.15.08
Assorted Updates: Patents, OSI, Mono, KDE and Novell
From the Campaign for Document Freedom
Gentle Protest Against Software Patents in India
The situation in India has been covered quite a few times recently because it’s getting grim [1, 2, 3, 4]. Fortunately, now comes the organised opposition.
Bengaluru Meetup
When: 10am, Saturday 16th August 2008
Where: BMS College of Engineering, Basavanagudi
Agenda: Indian Patents office has called for a meeting of stakeholders in Bengaluru on 27th August (date still to be confirmed). We should submit a written appeal to stop introducing software patents in India. We will prepare this document here.
Software patents are, as stressed here before, merely a mechanism to have multi-nationals (and their local business partners) inherits the country’s assets. These patents are being marketed differently, however, in order for them to pass as a new amendment to the law.
Groklaw: “Enemies of FOSS Are Attacking”
Pamela Jones pointed this out yesterday. We are well past the “then they laugh at you” phase, so it’s only reasonable to prepare for more of the “then they attack you” outbursts. The OSI is explicitly mentioned by Pamela and Bruce Perens warns that Microsoft can have it ruined. The context is slightly different though.
It means that while OSI’s handling of a list of approved licenses worked very well for a community made up of FOSS programmers, who are decent folks all on the same page overall, now that enemies of FOSS are attacking, we need a new organization to vet licenses going forward a lot more carefully, one made up of experienced FOSS lawyers, none of them with a history of hostility to, or ignorance of, the GPL, with the community as advisors.
KDE
We are still watching KDE and Mono closely, hoping not to find irreversible intersection between these two. Some people have already noticed the growing trend inside GNOME.
As I briefly mentioned in another post, I am seriously concerned with GNOME’s infatuation with Microsoft technologies.
As a newcomer to the Linux scene, I was not aware that GNOME was tied up with Novell and all in a 3-way with Redmond. However, the more I find out about, the more discomforted I become…
And then there’s this comment.
Keep KDE Kleen
KDE needs to poll their own users before allowing proprietary sewage like C# and Mono to infect our relatively clean desktop.
I think most will be strongly opposed.
I will certainly be looking for a new desktop, for the first time since becoming involved with Free Software.
Just as a quick recap, consider Novell’s role.
SUSE is a good tool for Microsoft. It enables Microsoft to clog up some gaps where Windows would never fit. SUSE enables the monopolist to replace GNU/Linuxes with something that it ‘owns’ (in the mythical/’intellectual’ sense) and it’s therefore paid for (’compensated’). Using hypervisor/format/’protection’ caveats, Microsoft hopes to elevate its own asset (SUSE) at the expense of Ubuntus and Red Hats that roam freely, without per-copy restriction and Microsoft’s wrath.
Novell needs to be stopped. SLED/S/RT needs to be stopped. At the moment, if a company insists on using GNU/Linux, Microsoft can give them GNU/Linux, but not the GNU/Linux they want and need. Mono could part of the plan to transform ownership, passing more of it to Microsoft. █
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.
Roy Bixler said,
August 15, 2008 at 12:52 pm
“We are still watching KDE and Mono closely, hoping to see find irreversible intersection between these two.”
Surely you mean “… hoping *not* to find irreversible intersection …”?
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 15, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Oops. Good catch. Just fixed it.