07.01.08
Posted in GNU/Linux, Deals, xandros, Linspire at 5:34 am by Roy Schestowitz
List of Microsoft sellouts (desktop/server Linux) is down from 4 to just 3
The major news about Linspire got mentioned very briefly earlier in the day. The comments in Slashdot say a lot more and the summary sheds light on the relevance of this.
Some here may remember that both Xandros and Linspire signed patent protection deals with Microsoft in 2007.
Steven Vaughan is close to the people at Linspire, so he was fast with a detailed report.
Neither company, at this time, has confirmed either the deal or the amount that exchanged hands to make it happen. According to a source close to the acquisition, the approximately $1-million loan that Linspire had made to Xandros several years ago did not play a role in this transaction. That loan, the source said, had been settled for pennies on the dollar.
Lisa Hoover gathers some bits and pieces.
Linspire CEO Larry Kettler alerted stockholders this afternoon of the decision to sell all of Linspire’s assets, including the company’s free version, Linspire, and its Click N’ Run desktop installation platform.
We’ll keep this post updated as new details, if any, arrive. █
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06.18.08
Posted in Microsoft, Novell, Deals, FOSS, Xen at 12:53 am by Roy Schestowitz
Why compete when you can buy the competition?
An article with the headline “Third Brigade buys open-source rival” truly stood out from the headlines yesterday. Why would a company acquire its rival, let alone an open source rival? Why would this be approved? Would consumers benefit from less competition? This had shades of XenSource.
Third Brigade has bought OSSEC, an open-source competitor to its host intrusion detection and prevention system.
Ottawa-based Third Brigade said it had bought the OSSEC project and related trademarks, as well as copyrights held by the project’s creator and primary developer, Daniel Cid, and the OSSEC.net domain, website and website content.
[…]
No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.
The press release announcing it is here. It seems like a case of stifling competition by simply buying it. The Microsoft-Novell deal too was a sort of non-compete agreement. Novell got paid handsomely for it. █
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06.03.08
Posted in Formats, Red Hat, Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Novell, SLES/SLED, Deals, OpenDocument, Open XML, IBM, Google at 10:56 am by Roy Schestowitz
Solution? Collaboration? With Novell?
The relationship between IBM and Novell has always been an interesting one. It’s perplexing. IBM supported Novell’s acquisition of S.u.S.E. and later attended and endorsed the deal with Microsoft, which is a big rival of IBM. Despite this, its VP of Open Source and Standards is far from fond of Mono and he sticks with Red Hat or Ubuntu on his desktop (well, a laptop in practice).
Reader Gopal has altered us about a release of Symphony and now comes this press release, which Chris Ward would probably care about because its targeted at the British crowd.
IBM, Novell Offer A Microsoft-Free Desktop To UK Users
The so-called IBM Open Collaboration Solution uses open document format, or ODF-based software, running on Suse Linux, a version of the Linux open-source operating system software owned by Novell.
Why SUSE? Could they have moved away from Red Hat (Open Client) after their changes of plans? Or are these totally separate ’solutions’ (very bad word in the context of Free software)? There’s room for research here because IBM did announced something around August last year (LinuxWorld) about a proprietary collaboration framework that would be built on top of SUSE. We have it somewhere in this site’s archives.
Either way, it’s a step in a positive direction for ODF only assuming it does not cannibalise adoption of software like OpenOffice.org, which is not proprietary.
There are other emerging threats to Microsoft Office and thus to uptake of OOXML. Among them you now have Adobe, not just Google, Zoho and their counterparts that rely more on Web standards and JavaScript. Here you have a new video that explains Adobe’s plans.
CNET’s Charles Cooper and Elsa Wenzel discuss the new beta release of Adobe Acrobat, which will compete with Microsoft and Google.
Adobe Flash is required in order to watch this video about Adobe. It’s not so egocentric if you consider the fact that Microsoft is now publishing videos on its own Web site as Silverlight objects. It’s trying to seed adoption. █
“I’d be glad to help tilt lotus into into the death spiral. I could do it Friday afternoon but not Saturday. I could do it pretty much any time the following week.”
–Brad Silverberg, Microsoft
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05.16.08
Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, Deals, Debian, GPL, Ubuntu, Mail, xandros, Linspire at 10:54 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Linspire
To be very clear and probably a little blunt, Linspire’s main distinguisher is CNR. At some stage last year, Matt Hartly even advised the company the have the entire business just centrered around CNR and rely on others, as it typically has (Debian or Ubuntu), to produce the GNU/Linux distribution. Linspire adds customisation, proprietary bits and CNR to make what we know as Linspire (or Freespire, which isn’t as free as the same implies). It’s pretty much the same with Xandros.
It’s unsurprising to find that Linspire’s presence is pretty much tied to CNR. Those two are now inseparable. Over at Linux.com you’ll find this article about Linspire using its ‘bread and butter’, CNR which is now free software, to approach Mint and Ubuntu. They all share the same codebase, but only Linspire will have great trouble with the GPLv3, due to its foolish deal with Microsoft.
Linspire, the San Diego, Calif.-based Linux distributor, is continuing to build up its CNR (Click-N-Run) software installation system with partnerships with Ubuntu parent Canonical and the Ubuntu-based Linux Mint distribution. Linspire recently announced that its beta CNR service now supports the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron release and Linux Mint versions 4.0 and 5.
Here is a new review of CNR.
CNR or Click and Run is a free one-click software delivery service designed to standardize the process and eliminate the complexity of finding, installing and managing Linux software for the most popular desktop Linux distributions according to the Linspire folks.
[…]
CNR achieves what it strives to be, easy installation of programs, especially for newbies. What is great about CNR is that it integrates with the distro’s package manager and thus make making life much easier unlike other projects like Autopackage. However it is not as easy and great to use like Add/Remove in Ubuntu and is not as vast as the official Ubuntu repositories and many programs are not available but is not far behind. It is still in the beta-development phase so I expect more innovations in the future. And as I said before, it is great for purchasing and installing proprietary programs.
However most users of Ubuntu do not need CNR as such but it is good to have options as well.
Another non-announcement comes from Linspire about Cedega in CNR:
Cedega enables Linux gamers to play Windows titles on their Linux OS. Triple-A video games such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Battlefield 2142, World of WarCraft, Madden 2007, Civilization IV and many more, can be played on Linux using Cedega. This allows an easy, out-of-the-box gaming experience.
As we pointed out last week, eWeek doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to Xandros or Linspire. Almost immediately Henry Kingman covered this non-story. Bear in mind that Desktop Linux is owned by the bankrupt Ziff Davis, which hardly publishes anything these days, especially after SJVN changed directions (he publishes in Computer World, Linux.com, CIO.com, his personal Web site and IEEE) and Rick Lehrbaum made a career change.
Anyway, from the article:
CNR can also be used to install “over 900 free and commercial software games,” Linspire claims, in genres that span from classic arcade games, to action games, adventure games, puzzles, and boardgames.
In other words, that press release could brag about hundreds of other games. So, is it an article or a commercial? It’s hard to tell. Maybe somewhere in-between. On the brighter side of things, Linspire seems to be a source of inspiration to some.
Version 2.0 of the software will offer the iPhone SDK and the App store, which is similar to Linspire’s online store CNR.com which allows you to install software directly from the web, and can be used both by iPhone and iTouch users.
Xandros
Last week we saw Xandros and Viyya Technologies getting together and this week it’s an obscure (and probably small) company from India that says it joined hands with Xandros.
IIRA Technologies pioneer in the field of open source join hands with Xandros Inc. for basic OS and mail servers. After working on varied Open Source platform for long 8(eight) years, we found Xandros is most scalable, user friendly and network savvy. Xandros is the only OS having facility to communicate with almost all of the applications irrespective of platforms whether proprietary or open source.
The only other noteworthy news from Xandros (other than Asutek’s Eee PC coverage) would be Commtouch and Scalix collaborating on E-mail security technologies.
Commtouch and Scalix Collaboration Brings Real Time Messaging Security to Linux-based E-mail Servers — New Scalix Release Incorporates Commtouch Anti-Spam and Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Protection Technologies
Here is the press release.
Scalix, a Linux e-mail, calendaring and messaging company and Commtouch® (NASDAQ:CTCH) today announced the signing of an OEM licensing agreement to bring real time Scalix AntiSpam and Scalix ZeroHour AntiVirus protection to the Scalix messaging platform.
It would only be fair to admit that I resent Xandros and Linspire. With Novell it’s a more complicated relationship because I used to love the company and even advocated its products. Then came the deal with Microsoft. It felt like a divorce, or at least a cruel betrayal. Even Groklaw seems to maintain its love-hate relationship with Novell. █
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05.02.08
Posted in Microsoft, Novell, Deals, Patents, Kyocera Mita at 5:06 am by Roy Schestowitz
Minor observation relating to corporate relationships
Among the companies which foolishly signed a software patent deal with Microsoft we have Novell and Kyocera-Mita. Both deals involved Linux specifically. We previously highlighted a connection between Kyocera-Mita and Novell and later showed how Sanyo potentially fits into this picture. Another connection between Kyocera-Mita and Novell — or at least some more clues — can be found in this new press release that announces imaginary property being passed from Peerless to Kyocera-Mita, namely:
Peerless also maintains strategic partnerships with Adobe and Novell. For more information, visit Peerless’ web site at www.peerless.com.
[…]
Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, changing competitive and market conditions, our reliance on certain OEM customers for significant portions of our revenues, the sufficiency of our capital resources, any adverse change in our relationship with Adobe Systems Incorporated and/or Novell, Inc, increased competition both from in-house OEM products and low cost offshore competitors, the impact of Microsoft’s Vista(TM) operating system, reduced demand for our existing monochrome technologies or other products, the rapid changes taking place in the emerging color print devices markets, our ability to realize contract backlog, our ability to identify new customers or place our technology in a broader base of products, our ability to leverage core competencies and find product segments that blend well with our core business, our ability to successfully enter new software application sectors, our ability to maintain our profit objectives and create compelling margins, the tenure of the competitive advantage of our old and new technologies, our reliance on block licensing, our ability to develop and market our advanced devices and software, the validity and protection of our intellectual property rights, risks associated with international business activities, our reliance on key personnel and our board of directors and our ability to execute our business plan and strategic partnering transactions.
This is nothing of great significance, but we have it recorded in case it will come handy in the future. █
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04.30.08
Posted in Microsoft, Deals, Patents, Asia, Google at 11:22 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Microsoft patent deals such as this latest one would not be worth mentioning under most circumstances. However, interestingly enough, it is a Chinese company that pays for imaginary things, which almost contradicts de facto law and practice in that nation [1, 2].
Microsoft Corp. and Beijing Komoxo Mobile Software Inc. today announced a patent licensing agreement on text-input technologies for mobile devices. The licensed patents allow Komoxo to integrate Microsoft’s statistical language modeling methods into its next-generation text-input engine for reduced keypad and touch-screen devices, and deliver new mobile innovations to consumers around the world.
“Statistical language modeling methods” sounds like mathematics. Is China buying permission for writing algorithms? We are in danger of approaching a state where there is too much binary or digital collision between computer programs and the patent system is then rendered moot or makes a chaotic sea of lawsuits. Several days ago we mentioned an article from The Economist, wherein almost a million patent lawsuits are predicted, in China alone.
For the record, Xomoxo seems to have nothing to do with Linux, based on a basic Web search.
Microsoft is not the only company to be accused and it’s important not to be IPocrities. Google too is now patenting behaviour and algorithms for studying it.
Since not every single one gets clicked on, Google’s ads might be considered less than perfect. A new patent application would make behavioral targeting a central part of improving them.
[…]
Meanwhile, it’ll be worth watching Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Ask, and every other search company to see if they pursue similar paths. Patent applications sometimes spill the beans, so to speak, and set off a race even as businesses try to stay in the clear legally.
Patenting behavioral things, eh? Next best thing to patents on stem cells. █
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04.28.08
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Novell, FUD, Deals, Patents, Patent Covenant, FOSS at 8:33 am by Roy Schestowitz
Novell rolling, rocking, and bridge-building
A reader has sent us a pointer to this new article from Glyn Moody at Linux Journal. The article described just what Microsoft intends to achieve using its deal with Novell and why many software developers get exploited in the process. It’s all self-explanatory really, but here is the ‘meat’ of the argument which speaks about Brad Smith’s explanation of the Novell deal (shades of OSBC again [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]):
…as well as all the respect and appreciation that Brad wanted to express, he also has an interesting explanation of Microsoft’s current world-view:
we believe in the importance of building a bridge that makes it possible for the different parts of our industry to work together. We believe it needs to be a bridge that respects the diversity of different business models. We believe in a bridge that is scalable, that is affordable, that is workable, and that doesn’t try to move people from one island over the bridge to another but let’s everybody do what they love to do and respects that.
Live and let live: what could be more reasonable?
But let’s listen to Brad again as he explains what that means in practical terms:
That is a hard bridge to build, and yet I will say I believe today more than ever that it is a bridge we need to build. And I very much value the work and the conversations we were able to have at Novell when we started to build that bridge in November of 2006.
Ah, Novell. And what lies at the heart of that joint bridge-building with Novell?
we believe that patents are best sorted out by industry leaders so that developers and customers don’t have to deal with these issues themselves. We as industry leaders should take it upon ourselves to sort these things out.
When we worked things out with Novell, we did it with an eye towards succeeding in ensuring that the developers who were creating the software for Novell would not have to worry about this set of things, nor would their customers.
So there we have it. You shouldn’t worry about those silly old software patents because Microsoft and Novell have sorted everything out for you: all you have to do is carry on coding.
Except that it’s not quite that simple. Microsoft’s vision of “live and let live” is predicated on its continuing use of software patents, and of the open source side letting Microsoft and Novell handle all the tiresome implications for open source. In effect, though, this amounts to recognising Microsoft’s patents, and accepting its “solutions” for the open source community. “Live and let live” turns out to be tantamount to accepting Microsoft’s right to file, own and use software patents, which, in its turn, means accepting they apply to the open source world.
This “live and let live” promise surely excludes all those whose wallet hasn’t the Microsoft strings attached to it? Although the author does not say this directly and explicitly, it seems evident that he condemns this deal and suggests that we continue to combat software patents. Here is how it’s summarised and concluded:
Above all, it will send a message to the company that the open source world is not falling for the old “embrace, extend and extinguish” trick, and that if Microsoft really wants collaborate, “live and let live” is simply not enough, because of the asymmetric bargain it implies. As a basic pre-condition of working together with open source, the company needs to accept free software’s absolute foundation – the ability to share all its code in any way and with anyone – and that, by definition, means no software patents whatsoever.
Microsoft will most likely hope to find comfort in precedence (Novell’s blessings), resting in its government-imposed monopolies, to use Richard Stallman’s description of software patents.
Interestingly enough, going as much as a decade back, you can find a similar term being used to describe this, namely a “government-granted authority.” Whatever term gets used, it’s always interesting to associate it with the context, antitrust action in this case.
…the federal government of the United States of America has intervened in the free market by granting Microsoft a legal monopoly through the patent and copyright processes. On numerous occasions, agents of the U.S. Department of Justice — the same DOJ that right now is taking shots at Microsoft in the courtroom — has intervened to arrest and penalize businessmen who attempted to ignore the federally-created right known as intellectual property. This right is a federally-mandated fiction, not a process of the free market. Copyrights were not invented by business, but by the government, who grants them and enforces them as a form of federally-sponsored monopoly.
Since Microsoft’s economic and intellectual property derive directly from government-granted authority, it is only reasonable for governments to have the power to review and modify how the beneficiaries of their shared power use that authority. Antitrust is one means by which governments attempt to reel in some of the power they delegated to companies and individuals.
It is rather ironic that the same establishment that grants monopolies is also the only means for undoing and regulating them. It’s like asking a gun shop to enforce the law in a barbaric nation. Something more effective will be needed to encourage fair competition which serves the customer. As things stand, Novell and Microsoft override laws proactively, using deals and deeds. █
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04.23.08
Posted in Red Hat, Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Novell, SLES/SLED, Deals, Servers, Virtualization at 12:05 am by Roy Schestowitz
“It just tells you how desperate Microsoft is for a competitor that they’re holding up a software box produced by 100 guys in the hills of North Carolina. Who are they trying to kid?”
–Robert Young, CEO of Red Hat at the time
This one might make you slightly queasy if you consider not only geographical factors to be of relevance, but also employment record and baggage.
Mentioned last Saturday and throughout BrainShare coverage was Novell’s appliance ambition. Novell announced this more officially last week and one of the latest articles covering this is from techtarget.com.
With the beta launch of its SUSE Appliance Program, Waltham, Mass.-based Novell Inc. has climbed aboard the growing movement toward application appliances. The goal of the initiative: to enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to build new applications faster by creating stackable components that can be combined with programs to build customized applications, said Nat Friedman, Novell’s chief technology and strategy officer for open source.
Then came some more details about the product’s identity and role. The name JeOS (pronounced “juice”) was probably first introduced by Canonical some months ago and Novell adopted the same acronym, which is echoed quite uniformly across the Web, including in this article.
Novell Puts Out JEOS Beta, Starts Appliance Effort
[…]
In the case of Ubuntu, which has a main memory footprint of between 320 MB and 686 MB depending on the installed options, the high-end version of JEOS could come in at around 215 MB of main memory, not including the 32 MB footprint for the new ESX Server 3i hypervisor. A regular ESX Server 3 hypervisor weighed in at over 2 GB. So this is a radically improved memory footprint, therefore making it appropriate for hypervisor-style appliances.
But now comes the interesting bit. A couple of days ago the following press release surfaced.
rPath to OEM SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell for Appliances
rPath®, whose unique technology simplifies application distribution and management through virtual appliances, today announced a technology partnership enabling application providers to use rPath’s rBuilder® to create virtual appliances using the rPath Appliance Platform™ and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell®. The agreement promises to reduce complexity and costs of application distribution and deployment, while maintaining the strategic value of investments in application certification. The Novell-rPath collaboration marks a significant industry milestone, enabling customers for the first time to utilize a leading open-source operating system with a leading virtual appliance lifecycle management platform.
Here is a quick and short post about it.
Until now, however, rPath’s virtual appliances have been released on the company’s homegrown version of Linux. With the new partnership, developers that have built applications in SUSE Linux can just transfer them over to rPath without any trouble.
Then came some newer and more in-depth articles, such as this one
Novell will provide rPath with SUSE Linux Enterprise source code and maintenance patches for incorporation into rPath’s “appliance platform.”
rPath and Novell issued a statement that included endorsements of their partnership from SAP and VMware.
[…]
Eric Troan, who co-founded rPath, with Marshall, was among the top developers at Red Hat before leaving the firm. Marshall also was an executive at Red Hat.
Mind that last sentence again. This isn’t news to us, but the fact that the company is even based in Raleigh is interesting nonetheless. More interesting is the fact that it was rejected by others whom it approached, including Red Hat.
The Raleigh, NC company has approached Red Hat, Ubuntu and Sun about using rPath’s application packaging technology but those vendors decided to develop their own appliance offerings, he claims.
Mind the headline also: “rPath to OEM Novell’s SUSE Linux to reduce legal worries.” See the FUD effect? Since when are Linux appliances associated with legal worries? Were such phrases injected in by rPath, Novell, or Microsoft?
To sum up some findings, what we have here is another company that associates itself with the Microsoft-taxed distribution, which is further complicated by the origins of rPath. It comes from the same company and people to whom the Novell/Microsoft deal is a pain. rPath essentially becomes a SUSE Linux (Ballnux) repackager.
There is something worth stressing again. To Microsoft, Novell is like Citrix. Microsoft doesn’t need to buy it (it might even face antitrust scrutiny over this), but both Citrix and Novell do Microsoft’s work, by proxy. Some even consider Novell a GPL proxy of Microsoft, which is unsurprising because Microsoft hates the GPL and avoids direct contact with it at all costs. █
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« Previous entries ·
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.