05.28.09
Unrest in OpenSUSE Forums
Summary: OpenSUSE departures noted, Novell defends its OpenSUSE trademark
SIGNS suggest that the OpenSUSE project has slowed down. With the departure of one key person (voluntarily) leaves yet another.
Today, Wolfgang Koller, the founder of former suselinuxsupport.de and one of the three Site Admins of the openSUSE forums, announced his immediate resignation from the OSF staff. I myself feel this as a loss, that is both unexpected and severe. From my perspective, he deserves our respect and appreciation for everything he has done for the openSUSE community and thus this post is dedicated to his person and contribution.
Also in answer to his decision, I myself announced my own immediate resignation from the OSF staff as well.
The author of this post receives many comments.
Some people say that SUSE has not been the same ever since Novell acquired it. Novell thinks differently. Novell even defends its exclusive ownership of “OpenSUSE”, the trademark. Looking at its PR department, they use an article published by Novell staff (Zonker) to justify what they choose to do.
Zonker’s argument is founded on the Four Freedoms outlined by the Free Software Foundation which have nothing to do with the ability to commercially profit from open source software.
Microsoft’s pledge to OpenSUSE developers calls them “hobbyists” and says almost explicitly that they are only permitted to work with SUSE as a hobby but not to make money using SUSE. What kind of GNU/Linux supporter would tolerate that? How could Novell, which accepted and knowingly signed such an agreement? █
Will said,
May 28, 2009 at 8:39 am
If the OpenSUSE project really starts declining, then between the people that already left due to the “faustian pact” and the people that will leave once the quality gets sufficiently bad, there won’t be much left there.
Too bad. I still think, had Novell not made that deal and put a serious commitment into OpenSUSE, they could easily have been where Canonical and Ubuntu are today.
SUSE still has customers. Notably, I’ve seen some mostly Microsoft shops that, in cases where they have to run Linux (because no Microsoft product can cut it for the purpose), tend to run SUSE.
But still, it seems like these days most of the mindshare is gravitating toward Ubuntu and Fedora and their relatives (Debian, Mint, Mandriva, Red Hat, etc.)
zelrik said,
May 28, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Microsoft really fucked up Novell with their deal. That’s kinda sad. Fortunately, Canonical has a much better image and is growing fast enough.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 8:09 am
According to someone from OpenSUSE Forums, “Seems SUSE community is falling apart. People go away from forums, IRC, etc”
And earlier on we got DDoSed again, not that it’s likely to be in any way related.
eet said,
May 29, 2009 at 6:28 am
Hi! Just dropping in to check how things are cookin’ in tinfoil-hatter-land. How are my favorite lone-gunmen? Any apocalypses scheduled for today? Any good witch-hunts lately?
How’s that PhD of Roy’s coming along? Must’ve been over a year since he handed in his thesis.
Is Novell properly boycotted, yet? Man, you’ve tried so hard, it must be going under any minute now… Oh, wait, they’ve increased their net profits again! Well, maybe later then…
Has Doyle the Apostate been declared a Microsoft-minion, yet?
Has Moblin been declared the Next Trojan Horse to be smuggled into Ubuntu UNR, yet?
I’d especially care to hear about that PhD…
lalala Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 7:42 am
@eet
Ha! Great post. Will you be my friend?
DANGER said,
May 29, 2009 at 8:39 am
@lalala:
WARNING! Commentator ‘eet’ is a DANGEROUS homosexual rapist with pathological hatred of women and free software. Trust me, you don’t to be friend with this sick bastard. He is so viciously deranged, that he makes serial killers break down and vomit in disgust!
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 8:42 am
I don’t know about these allegations, but “eet” is a pseudonymous, forever-nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.
He also came grinning into the IRC session as soon as/exactly when we got DDoSed a few hours ago.
lalala Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Let’s look at a few things from those “eet” pages.
“He wants to make me think exactly as he thinks. That’s fascism, my friend.” — You want everyone to think as you think. That’s fascism too.
“He wants to make me say SUSE is great, and so is Novell.” — You want to make people say SUSE is evil, and so is Microsoft.
“He wants me to believe he’s also a genius in politics, because he knows better than everybody what neo-liberalism is.” — From what you type on this site and in IRC, you seem to be an expert on everything.
“He keeps on posting and posting again the same defamatory comments, like a broken machinery. He refuses to accept that this blog is owned be me, and my opinions are mine. That’s fascism too.” — You post defamatory comments all the time, like when you call someone a shill for not agreeing with you. You say your opinions are yours. What about the opinions of others? When someone has an “opinion” that you don’t like, you resort to defamatory comments (shill etc.)
“Someone who can post 40 comments in just one day (especially in a site that which asked it to go away) truly raises suspicion.” — If eet is raising suspicion for posting 40 comments in one day, then you are raising so much more suspicion because you post much, much more in one day on many sites.
One last thing, it’s not like you haven’t used proxies yourself before.
lalala said,
May 29, 2009 at 8:49 am
@DANGER
I didn’t realize the boycott novell shills resorted to such harsh defamation when someone calls them out on their BS. The PhD part is true, he never finished college. The part about Novell increasing profits is true, which shows that this site is run by someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Boycott Novell has become one of the biggest jokes of the internet.
Myfraudsoft Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Maybe calling ‘eet’ a homo-rapist was a bit extreme, but his posts do make one wonder. Here are some of eet’s gems with links provided:
“I bet Jonathan I. Schwartz and Steve Ballmer take nude sauna sessions together!!…” (stevetheFLY — one of eet’s many pseudonyms)
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/06/ooxml-patent-royalties/
“…don’t complain that somebody fucked you when show people your naked arse!” (stevetheFLY)
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/09/05/ms-smears-cj-adams-collier/
“…it could poke him in the eye with a banana and he wouldn’t recognize it.” (eet — poke in the eye with a…BANANA!?! )
This last sample of eet’s sexually confused and abusive remark is in this thread, just scroll down.
lalala Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Calling eet a homo rapist was definitely extreme. No “maybe” about it.
“I bet Jonathan I. Schwartz and Steve Ballmer take nude sauna sessions together!! Shameless treason! Flail them! We want blood! ;ppp” This is obviously eet poking fun at Roy for blaming everything on Ballmer.
“heh; the no.1 hater and spammer complains that he das been ATTACKED! how droll. roy, your blog is the worst smear-campaign, and mutual wanking-site of self-righteous zealots that I’ve ever seen. don’t complain that somebody fucked you when show people your naked arse!” This is also obviously poking fun at Roy. Considering the smear campaign coming from Boycott Novell, Roy is just asking people to take the site down. In other words, Roy is indeed asking to get fucked (not in the literal sense) when he shows his ass (again, not in the literal sense) on this site.
I don’t really get the banana comment. Maybe it’s about Roy not looking at what’s right in front of him. Maybe it’s about Roy refusing to believe the truth, instead making stuff up.
Calling him sexually confused and abusive makes you not better than the guy that called him a homo rapist for not agreeing with what’s on this site.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I may not remember this correctly, but “lalala” may have been one of eet’s nyms a year ago. I’d have to check….
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
OK, I’ve just checked and no… “lalala” has consistently been one of the supporters of “eet” since 2007.
lalala Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Typical for you Roy, when someone doesn’t agree, you say their just another alias of “some troll”.
Consistently a supporter of “eet”? Not including today, I’ve only posted on this site a handful of times. How is that consistently? I don’t even know if I’ve responded to any of eet’s comments before.
Why was your first reaction to see if I’m one of eet’s nyms? Is it because you still, after all this time, can’t fathom why someone wouldn’t agree with you?
eet said,
May 29, 2009 at 11:16 am
By Jove, the heary welcome from Roy! All of a sudden I’m #1 suspect of a dubious ‘DDOS’-'attack’ on his funny website… As far as I read on tuxmachines.org, he just writes things like this to turn his incapability in coping with the technical aspects of hosting a website into a lame martyr-pose
@lalala: Ha! Thought as much! Would have wondered if he got through with his kind of (non-)understanding of logical argumentation.
Honestly, I suspect Roy has long since forgotten what truth looks like; it could poke him in the eye with a banana and he wouldn’t recognize it.
lalala Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
hey eet,
Did you notice that the first thing Roy did was to try & link me to you just because I was calling them out on their lies & slander? He said I consistently been one of your supporters. That’s news to me.
The only way they know how to respond to someone calling them out is more lies and slander.
eet Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Yes, unfortunately Roy puts all the energy he should have invested in his collegiate studies into slander.