Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference and Novell

Group of monkeys
€¿Mono? Mono. No!



Microsoft's PDC has already featured a variety of starring exhibits like Vista 7 [sic], Azure (Hailstorm reborn), a Web-based version of Office (that's not new) and... Novell. Yes, Mono and Novell are so much of an asset to Microsoft, in contrary to what Miguel de Icaza wants critical crowds to believe. Might it be because of software patents? Or dominance of APIs? Either way, for everyone's eyes:



What a difference a few years -- and a Novell-Microsoft alliance -- can make. The partnership struck between Microsoft and Novell has resulted in much friendlier relations and regular communications between the two companies. Mono also has come out with an open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight technology, dubbed Moonlight. And de Icaza will finally get to lead a PDC session about Mono at 4:45 p.m. later this afternoon here at the conference.


He happens to present in quite a few Microsoft conferences.

Based on another new article, this one from eWeek, Microsoft has no interest in Free software and royalty-free (as in libre) standards. The "interoperability" buzzword is all over the place. It often contradicts Freedom. The only cooperation Microsoft is interested in is to be based on Novell-type patent deals [1, 2, 3]. Horacio Gutierrez made it very clear that all the sweet talk may just be fluff and bluff for press. Behind the scenes, it's a foreplay for extortion which they already engage in rather secretly.

Microsoft OpenOffice.Nov



“For Microsoft to get more closely involved in OpenOffice, it can passively operate through Novell and its fork.”The previous post talked about Apache and how Microsoft wants it to work better (or more widely) on Windows. For Microsoft to get more closely involved in OpenOffice, it can passively operate through Novell and its fork [1, 2, 3]. With OOXML, Mono and Windows integration (e.g. fonts and macros), Microsoft might already be using Novell as its vassal to achieve exactly that.

Novell already prioritises Windows as a platform for OpenOffice while it's leaving other platforms like GNU/Linux out in the cold. But there appears to be a belated arrival. A few hours ago, Petr Mladek (of Novell/SUSE) announced:


[opensuse-announce] OpenOffice_org 3.0 final available






Hi,

I’m happy to announce that the build 3.0.0.3.5 passed testing and OpenOffice.org 3.0 final packages are available in the Build Service OpenOffice:org:STABLE project.

Note that OOo is very complex application. We are sure that some annoying bugs will be found within the following weeks. Please report bugs into bugzilla. See also known bugs below. I would like to update the package once again within next two weeks with some important fixes that will be available in the meantime.

Note that openSUSE-11.1-betaX and FACTORY include totally reworked packages where the build is split into many source packages. It is a bit broken right now. We would like to put it into the Build Service as soon as possible but it will take some time to fix the build on older distributions again. Please be patient.

Where to get it: ---------------- The list of installation repositories can be found at http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories#OpenOffice.org_STABLE

Installation problems: ---------------------- There are some problems with the version update on older distributions. You might need to select the right version by hand, see http://en.opensuse.org/OpenOffice#Dependencies_During_Update

IMPORTANT

The packages with localizations are renamed from OpenOffice_org-<lang> to OpenOffice_org-l10n-<lang>. Also the localized help content is split into the optional OpenOffice_org-help-<lang> packages. Finally, the American localization is split into extra packages OpenOffice_org-l10n-en-US and OpenOffice_org-help-en-US.

We are sorry, the 64-bit packages are not available for SLED10 and openSUSE-10.2. You could install the 32-bit (i586) packages there.

Bug reports: ------------ Please report the bugs into https://bugzilla.novell.com/ for the product "OpenOffice_org 2.0". Do not forget to mention enough information about the problem, see http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs:OOo.

Known bugs: ----------- * TOC with hyperlinks is corrupted when exporting to MS Word file format (bnc#438525) * can’t change text size in merged cells (bnc#437137)

Changes in this version: ------------------------

The GO-OO project changes are listed at http://svn.gnome.org/svn/ooo-build/tags/OOO_BUILD_3_0_0_3_5/NEWS

General information about the build: ------------------------------------

The build is based on the GO-OO project. It includes lots bug fixes, features and optimizations in compare with the regular OpenOffice.org build:

* improved VBA interoperability * improved import filters (OOXML, WordPerfect) * additional import filters (SVG, WordPerfect Graphics, Microsoft Works, ...) * native KDE Open/Save dialog * WebDAV locking * new 3D slide transitions * multimedia in Impress via GStreamer * multiple formula syntax (Calc A1, Excel A1 and Excel R1C1) * ...

, see also http://go-oo.org/discover/






Notice the inclusion of GO-OO. Novell is trying to take the lead and steal Sun's thunder. Will users trust a company that puts Microsoft's 'protected' technology (which only Novell customers are permitted to use) inside an office suite? A company that discriminates against GNU/Linux in a variety of ways? Well, that's Novell.

We don't know yet if Novell is "the next SCO." As we stated over a year ago, it's a lot more likely that Microsoft takes the leading role as SCO's successor. Groklaw opines similarly. But Novell is just a tool. Novell is the next BayStar, merely fueling litigation prospects.

"On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO's strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO's financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital."

--Bruce Perens

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries