10.13.07

No OpenOffice.org Fork, if Sun Relinquishes Control

Posted in Novell, Office Suites, Fork, SUN, OpenOffice, LGPL at 10:09 pm by Shane Coyle

According to a recent blog entry from Paula Rooney, Michael Meeks - the developer at the center of the most recent OpenOffice.org fork rumors - has denied that he intends to fork the project at this time, saying that forking is "not an ideal outcome".

However, Meeks is not ruling out an eventual forking of OOO if Sun refuses to give up its control of the project and establish an independent non-profit foundation to govern it.

Concerns about a possible fork arose because the Go-OO build, an OpenOffice implementation maintained by Meeks and others, decided to include a feature that Sun rejected for inclusion in the next OpenOffice because the developer refused to sign Sun’s contributor agreement.

Meeks said in an interview that it is customary for Go-OO to include new technologies and that the latest build should not be viewed as a fork. But he hinted that a fork is not out of the question if Sun doesn’t loosen its grip on the OpenOffice project.

“It’s clear that if Sun continues to refuse to include changes under their own license then you will see a growing set of changes that can’t be included in OpenOffice, and then we’d see that delta increasing over time. Eventually, users can understand they can get a better OpenOffice than at OpenOffice.org,” Meeks said this week during a telephone interview.

It would appear, that according to Simon Phipps, Sun is at this time content with the changes that they have made in recent weeks - including the replacing of the Contributor Agreement and creation of a Community Advisory Board. Phipps goes on to question Meeks’ motivation for mounting this challenge now, after having been an historical supporter of the contributor agreement.

In his blast at Novell’s Meeks, Phipps points to great strides made by OpenOffice over the past several months, including new participation by Red Flag 2000 and IBM.

“In the midst of all this, I see my friend Michael Meeks has been challenging Sun in a creative way - it even made Slashdot today. I remember the days when Michael used to enthusiastically encourage OpenOffice.org community members to sign the contributor agreement, as recently as last December…,” Phipps wrote on his blog recently, questioning Mr Meeks’ motives. It’s a shame Michael has chosen now - a turning point in OpenOffice.org and a moment when Sun has radically improved the SCA in response to broad feedback from many communities - as a time to mount a fresh challenge to Sun that by implication also harms OpenOffice.org. And when you distill out all the details, that’s what this turns out to be even by Michael’s admission - a competitive issue, not a community one.”

So, it appears that the line in the sand has been drawn between Sun and Meeks, yet we still have not heard anything in an official capacity from Novell. I would expect there to be quite a bit more from both sides on this highly contentious subject in the coming weeks leading up to the first meeting of the Community Advisory Board, and perhaps beyond.

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10.12.07

Novell Technology Assurance Program, Microsoft and GPLv3

Posted in Microsoft, Novell, SLES/SLED, Marketing, Deals, Intellectual Property, GPL, Patent Covenant at 12:26 am by Shane Coyle

Novell’s PR Blog points out that they have updated their indemnification program, one of the "oldest in the industry". Novell Technology Assurance program, or NTAP, is - oh, well let them introduce themselves…

This protection extends far beyond our broad Novell Indemnification Program; you also benefit from the Novell and Microsoft patent cooperation agreement. It ensures that when you buy any Novell products—whether Linux-based or proprietary—you receive a patent covenant from Microsoft. The Novell Technology Assurance Program also affirms our willingness to use the large Novell software patent portfolio as a deterrent to patent aggression. With the Novell Technology Assurance Program and our ownership of the UNIX copyright, we are able to support our customers with one of the most extensive IP protection offerings in the industry.

So, Novell now wants to remind you they have the double whammy in IP protection - a covenant and patent license for themselves and customers from our friends in Redmond, in addition to ownership of the Unix copyrights. Feel free to go check out the details, but the first thing I clicked on floored me: Microsoft is extending their covenant to GPLv3, once a GPLv3 program is in SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Microsoft has extended its covenant to not sue users of Linux-based products from Novell to all GPL v3 users as soon as GPL v3 code is integrated into SUSE Linux Enterprise. This means that the patent protection Microsoft extends to Novell customers now covers every customer who uses any Linux-based software that Novell distributes under GPL v3.

I’m not sure if that means that Microsoft is embracing GPLv3, is confident they can beat GPLv3 in court, or if it means Novell will simply never include v3 code in SLE.

I’ll be poking around the NTAP site some more in the A.M., it’s getting a bit late and I’m bleary eyed. I don’t know how Roy does this so prolifically, sometimes I think there are two of him ;^ ).

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Novell Lays Off AppArmor Team

Posted in Boycott Novell, Novell, Ubuntu, AppArmor at 12:03 am by Shane Coyle

It has been said on this site before, we do not really hate Novell (certainly not the employees and community), and we absolutely recognize and appreciate all of Novell’s contributions, we just want them to see the error of their ways. Call it tough love, if you will.

So, keeping that in mind, realize I am not particularly comfortable writing about the current layoffs at Novell. However, this story really shocked me, I must admit.

Apparently, Novell has layed off the AppArmor team (and it’s confirmed, so this isn’t like when it appeared that the Samba developers left Novell, but hadn’t - a little embarrassing).

Two years after acquiring the company that developed the AppArmor security software for Linux, Novell has laid off team members behind the project, CNET News.com has learned.

AppArmor’s founder and leader, Crispin Cowan, joined Novell in 2005 when it acquired his company, Immunix, which developed the software. But he and four others from the project lost their Novell jobs in Portland, Ore., on September 28, Cowan confirmed.

However, he plans to continue AppArmor development. He and two other laid-off AppArmor programmers, Steve Beattie and Dominic Reynolds, launched an AppArmor consulting company on Wednesday called Mercenary Linux.

The article goes on to say, from a rather cold economic perspective, that Novell intends to rely on the AppArmor community to lead development of the project since it is an even lower-cost option than outsourcing.

With the adoption of AppArmor really beginning to take off, in my mind, it seems rather odd that Novell would dissociate itself from the core team in such a way - as Cowan put it, "tossing it in the wind and hoping" - yet Novell terms it as "improving our product development process".

What are we to make of this rather sudden, somewhat shocking (even to Crispin Cowan) move? It’s like Novell wanted to embrace the "Bazaar" development model, and just now is going to a bizarre development model.

P.S.
Best of luck to the Mercenary Linux folks (great name, by the way!).

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10.11.07

Here Come the Patent Infringement Suits (Updated)

Posted in Red Hat, Law, GNU/Linux, Novell, Steve Ballmer, FUD, Intellectual Property, Patents, Courtroom, Action, FOSS at 12:33 pm by Shane Coyle

Hmmm…. Ballmer Was Right?

Recently, in his most recent FUD eruption regarding Red Hat and alleged Microsoft IP violations, the Microsoft CEO also implied that one day soon other companies would "go to the open source world".

That’s why we’ve done the deal we have with Novell, where not only are we working on technical interoperability between Linux and Windows but we’ve also made sure that we could provide the appropriate, for the appropriate fee, Novell customers also get essentially the rights to use our patented intellectual property. And I think it’s great the way Novell stepped up to kind of say intellectual property matters. People use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property in a sense have an obligation to eventually to compensate us. [emphasis ours]

There are plenty of other people who may also have intellectual property. And every time an Eolas comes to Microsoft and says, “Pay us,” I suspect they also would like to eventually go to the open source world. So getting what I’ll call an intellectual property interoperability framework between the two worlds I think is important.

Well, it appears that a company known as IP Innovation LLC is now filing suit against Red Hat and Novell, regarding a patent for "a User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects". Having adopted a no-look policy regarding spurious software patents, I cannot comment on any specifics (the patent number is below for the curious and masochistic).

IP Innovation LLC et al vs. Red Hat Inc. et al

Plaintiffs IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corp. claim to have the rights to U.S. Patent No. 5,072,412 for a User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects issued Dec. 10, 1991 along with two other similar patents.

Defendants Red Hat Inc. and Novell have allegedly committed acts of infringement through products including the Red Hat Linux system, the Novell Suse Linex[SIC] Enterprise Desktop and the Novell Suse Linex[SIC] Enterprise Server.

“Red Hat’s and Novell’s infringement, contributory infringement and inducement to infringe has injured plaintiffs and plaintiffs are entitled to recover damages adequate to compensate them for such infringement but in no event less than a reasonable royalty,” the original complaint states.

The plaintiffs also allege that defendants received notice of the patents, therefore the infringing activities have been deliberate and willful.

Plaintiffs are seeking an injunction from the court, increased damages and other relief that the court or a jury may deem just and proper.

T. John Ward Jr. of Ward & Smith Law Firm in Longview is representing the plaintiff.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis.

Case No. 2:07-cv-00447-LED

Now, I don’t believe this is the first infringement suit that has ever been filed against Red Hat, but is this the leading edge of a new wave of litigation spurred on by Mr. Ballmer’s repeated accusations? We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose. In the meantime, can anyone think of any prior art for having ‘multiple workspaces’ in your GUI?

Update:
The folks at Groklaw have picked up the ball and started running on this one, so you can find fairly comprehensive coverage of this suit and possible connections between the plaintiff (an Acacia subsidiary) and our friends from Redmond over there as well.

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10.10.07

Linspire 6.0 Released - Now with Patent Protection!

Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Linspire at 12:55 pm by Shane Coyle

I’m not going to spend much time talking about a completely irrelevant distro, but for the sake of completeness of coverage…

San Diego, CA - October 10th, 2007 - Linspire, Inc., developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire community desktop Linux operating systems and CNR.com, a free Linux software delivery service, today announced the immediate availability of Linspire 6.0, the latest commercial release of the desktop Linux operating system. Building on the best of open source software using Ubuntu as its base line, Linspire 6.0 adds licensed proprietary drivers, codecs, and software in its core distribution to provide a better user experience. The first commercial release from Linspire, Inc. in over two years, Linspire 6.0 continues its traditional focus on ease-of-use and bundles proprietary software where there are no viable open source alternatives, providing improved hardware, file type, and multimedia support, such as MP3, Real, Java, Flash, ATI, nVidia, WiFi, and many more. Linspire 6.0 is also the first commercial release to incorporate several technologies from Microsoft including Windows Media, True Type Fonts, as well as Open XML translators that allow OpenOffice to open and edit Microsoft Word .docx formatted documents.

Well, this should be a boon for the folks from Linspire, as it is well known throughout the Free World that the biggest impediment to GNU/Linux adoption has been an overwhelming fear of potential IP infringement suits from our friends in Redmond, in addition to the lack of "Times New Roman" by default. Right.

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Dell, Lenovo to Preload SUSE Desktops

Posted in Microsoft, Novell, Ron Hovsepian, Deals, Hardware, Interview, Dell, Lenovo at 10:49 am by Shane Coyle

in China

Recently, Ron Hovsepian has spoken with SiliconRepublic.com regarding the Microsoft deal and it’s effects on the woebegone Novell. Honestly, there are very few ‘new’ pieces of information to be gleaned from the interview, but there were perhaps a couple of notable assertions by the CEO.

Up to 17 New Collaboration Project Areas

Hovsepian said that as part of the pact both Microsoft and Novell would meet on a quarterly basis to review the current status of the project and that this has resulted in up to 17 new potential project areas emerging.

“These really came from the customers who are driving this. We’ll be meeting later this month to discuss these new projects and some of these we’ll make public in the not-to-distant future.”

Preloaded SUSE Desktops

“The desktop element is particularly critical”, he added. “PSA Peugeot has selected us to replace over 20,000 desktops with SUSE Linux. In India, Tamil Nadu Electronics have chosen us to replace over 30,000 desktops with SUSE Linux. Dell in China and Lenovo have both committed to pre-load SUSE Linux so our desktop strategy is getting stronger and stronger.

I would be remiss to not remind readers of Lenovo’s recent deal with Microsoft, as Roy so presciently deduced at the time, it seems to have finally enabled them to deliver on their repeated promises of SUSE preinstalls. Kinda sounds like when Dell got permission from our friends in Redmond to sell, er I mean meet (but not create) customer demand, for GNU/Linux.

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10.09.07

Why Would Novell Want to Fork OOO?

Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Novell, Office Suites, Intellectual Property, Fork, OpenDocument, Interoperability, Open XML, OpenOffice, LGPL, FOSS at 11:51 am by Shane Coyle

Regular readers of this site, the ones that remember way back when I had time to contribute more, may recall the hub-bub regarding Novell possibly forking OpenOffice.org shortly after their infamous deal with our friends from Redmond - something that was heatedly debated in the community.

Well, now let’s look at the present times - all over the web, reports abound about the Novell-Sun rift and Michael Meeks forking of OpenOffice.org. Some say it is a fork, some say it is not, and this all sounds very familiar but a little confusing - again.

Charles H. Schulz has written a piece that was published on Groklaw which attempts to shed some light on the background of the dispute, and offers some conjecture on what Meeks’ motivation may be:

Bear with me now: The OpenOffice.org project is developing import filters for OpenXML, but not export filters. Why? Because, I believe, it does not want to make a service to Microsoft by being the second major office suite to produce OpenXML documents on the fly. Novell sees this issue from a different point of view, but let’s not get carried away. Working with Microsoft on interoperability, as Novell claims, includes working on OpenXML filters and plugins. While Novell contributes quite normally to OpenOffice.org’s import filters, it is also developing an OpenXML export filter that won’t be available in OpenOffice.org– that is, if you choose to use OpenOffice.org and not “Open Office, Novell Edition”. And since these export filters are supposedly developed in collaboration with Microsoft, this technology would logically include Microsoft’s sacred intellectual property that Sun and many others don’t want to see covered by the JCA. This could, perhaps, explain Michael’s odd questions on this list of OpenOffice.org

So these new builds from Novell would thus include new features, but features that will carry sometimes an unverified intellectual property. And that’s certainly an issue if Microsoft joins the game. Would that mean Michael’s move was made in order to serve some corporate interests?

So, it looks like Novell is indeed intent on making available a fully OOXML-compatible, yet likely IP-encumbered, version of Novell OpenOffice.org - features that will not or cannot be sent back upstream. Of course, they cannot rightfully be expected to pay Microsoft their per-unit royalty on all copies of OOO that is distributed, as their thirty pieces of silver just doesn’t stretch that far, so fork they must.

Hey, who knows, perhaps over in that joint-interoperability lab of theirs, Microvell is also working on full native ODF support for Microsoft Office. (I’m still pulling for you to be right, Stafford, and sometimes I wish I was more often wrong.)

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08.12.07

Has Microsoft OOXML Jumped Off the ISO Fast Track?

Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Standard, OpenDocument, America, Action, Interoperability, Open XML, ISO at 5:53 am by Shane Coyle

It appears that Microsoft may be encountering some delays in their attempts to gain fast-track approval for their Office Open XML file format, in fact it is being reported that they are one vote shy of Fast-Track approval in a recent internal INCITS poll.

The INCITS is the group that represents the United States in ISO deliberations, and according to the article the internal poll vote broke down as such:

Of the organizations that participated in the poll, Apple, the Department of Homeland Security, EIA, EMC, HP, Intel, Microsoft, and Sony all voted in favor of OOXML fast-track approval. Votes opposing approval came from Farance, GS1 US, IBM, Lexmark, NIST, Oracle, and the US Department of Defense. IEEE—which is comprised of numerous organizations including the companies that are on the INCITS executive board—abstained, citing internal disagreement.

Of course, even if OOXML is not given Fast-Track approval, it will continue to have the chance to slowly make its way through the ISO approval process and Microsoft will be afforded opportunities to correct or justify the numerous points of concern that have been raised since OOXML’s introduction such as reliance on proprietary formats and binary-only information, impossible (for third parties) to implement cryptic references to undocumented and proprietary information such as AutoSpaceLikeWord95, or their odd preference for reinventing the wheel with departure from accepted standards such as MathML, not to mention plain old bugs that should be addressed.

Then again, this entire exercise has been an example of Microsoft’s predilection for eschewing accepted standards and reinventing the wheel in their own proprietary way, since we already have an International Standard, ISO-approved, Office File Format.

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