09.06.08
Red Hat: Open Source Just a Hobby to Novell
“I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.”
–Linus Benedict Torvalds, 1991
Anonymous reader informs us: ‘Here’s something you may find interesting. Yesterday, we had some Red Hat sales representatives take us out to lunch. On their own, they asked us whether we use Novell/Suse. My reaction of course was “why would we do that?” and I later made a comment about how they so casually signed the deal with Microsoft, which makes them suspect. After receiving comments like that, they still took the trouble to say that Novell still primarily makes money by selling proprietary software and that they only “do open source as a hobby.” Clearly, Red Hat is worried about Novell. (Come to think of it, why not? After all, we all know what happened to Novell’s original Linux spinoff which started out as Caldera.)‘
Here is what the reader is referring to: Novell Rejected GNU/Linux a Decade Ago
Can Novell be the next SCO or at least spawn another SCO?
As we wrote very recently: SCO Also Used to Contibute to Linux, Just Like Novell
Remember what Microsoft’s CEO said: “We believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability […] I do think it [Novell deal] clearly establishes that open source is not free.” Sounds familiar? █
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.
landofbind said,
September 7, 2008 at 4:22 am
Wow, this really is an important piece of news.
An anonymous person makes a statement about an unverifiable and inane conversion about something commonplace rivalry between competing companies.
This is world shattering news. Breaking news.
And even more inane commentary about how we all should fear anyone who contributes to Linux (or any other open source project).
Can you make even more inane comments and “analysis” in the future? Don’t miss the next chapters of “The Utah Connection”, the next generation soap opera.
With Mr. Schestowitz in every role, from writer, director to every acting position.
Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an incarnation of a known (eet), pseudonymous, forever-nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.
Victor Soliz said,
September 7, 2008 at 7:16 am
There would be no need to make this up, it is certain that Novell really does not care.
Ever wonder why they are moving Mono from LGPL while also spreading FUD every once in a while about how it is evil and all? If this was just about letting people make proprietary programs that run Mono, they just needed the LGPL. They seem to be intentionally missing the Cedega debacle… I’ll tell you what they will do, they will fork Mono into proprietary and open, instantly after that MS will give blessing only to prop. Mono while the other will be just like a shareware for them. Thanks to pseudo-pragmatic users, certain ill-intentioned developers and people who are just guilty of indifference, distros’ defaults by then would be dependent on Mono. But CEOs will not feel like getting something that brings the non MS-blessed, limited version of “Linux .net”… So they will stick to SLED, the only distro that brings “Linux .net”…
Roy Schestowitz said,
September 7, 2008 at 10:20 am
Mono has already been divided in chunks (ECMA Core, Server and Desktop).
Didn’t Sun promise ‘protection’ to StarOffice users after a deal with Microsoft?