Exploring the reality behind exclusionary deals with Microsoft and their subtle (yet severe) implications
Going back to the days when Novell found itself unable to maintain dominance, Chin Wong has this story to tell.
Permalink
Leave Your Comment 
Send this to a friend 
View as PDF
Following the release of OpenSUSE 11.0, quite a few people decided to explore the distribution. Novell has begun studying OpenSUSE 11.0 users. It’s doing it at the moment using a survey that was launched last week. In addition, the OpenSUSE community pays its respect to Bryen Yunashko and Frank Sundermeyer, both of whom seem like veterans.
Listed below are articles and blog posts that shed some light on opinions and assessments of the latest distribution and its surrounding system.
Permalink
Leave Your Comment Send this to a friend View as PDF
It seems safe to suspect that Microsoft is trying to make VMWare a prisoner of Redmond and exclude competitors this way. VMWare, unlike GNU/Linux can be of used to promote Windows and demote Free software if manipulated properly. Consider, for instance, companies like Novell and Xandros that pay Microsoft for unspecified claims.
This has already happened to XenSource after a Microsoft General Manager had entered the company. Later came a similar move through a newly-crowned Partner of the Year, EMC. We saw it coming months ago.
The riddance of Diane Greene in favour of ‘Microsofthead’ Paul Maritz was appalling because of Diane’s role in bringing the company from nothing into something… in nowhere other than Wall Street! There may be more to the story than just Microsoft obedience. It’s arguably about sexism, too.
EMC accused of stifling discrimination claims while battling class-action
EMC ignored internal discrimination claims from female employees whilst fighting a class action lawsuit filed by other female employees.
That is the claim made by ex-EMC VP Paul Goetz in papers filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It strikes a chord with the recent ousting of VMware CEO Diane Greene, EMC’s highest-ranked female executive.
This is actually the more interesting part.
Remember what we shared yesterday about a VMWare executive predicting the death of the operating system (as we know it) due to hypervisors. For more information, see the following new article:
Will hypervisors make Ubuntu and other Linux operating systems obsolete?
I think this is feasible. After all, consider successful projects like WINE – which allows a wide range of Microsoft Windows applications to execute on top of Linux. The way this is achieved is by providing Linux equivalents for the Windows operating system functions that the software applications call.
In the same way, the virtual environments of the future will provide their own equivalents for the major functions that an operating system performs, particularly where related to hardware. The virtual environment is already providing a layer whereby it exposes its fictional set of devices to the virtual computer, and translates any calls to these into appropriate calls to the genuine hardware. Why bother having an operating system sit between this layer and the applications on the virtual computer? Why not just let the virtual machine take the application request in the first instance?
Here are some more articles and snippets of interest (roughly reverse chronological, so you might want to start at the bottom for the series of developments to be read in turn):
1. Windows will be killed by virtual appliances: VMware exec
Large commercial operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, will no longer exist within five to ten years, according to a senior VMware executive. Instead there will only be very thin open source operating systems supporting virtual appliances.
2. Evidence mounts for August Eee PC carnage with $299 Dell E launch
For that price, assuming everything we’ve heard so far is correct, you’ll get an instant-on Linux distro…
3. SplashTop Linux On HP, Dell Notebooks?
In addition to the instant-on Linux excitement this week for the HP Envy 133, Dell is apparently working on a similar Linux solution. Engadget has shared details surrounding the Dell E and E Slim.
4. Dell Creating Consumer PCs Complete with Virtualization
And in a similar fashion to what Parallels and VMware Fusion did for the Intel-based Mac community, this could give the Linux operating system a boost from consumers who want to use the open source software but don’t want to lose out on what Microsoft’s Windows platforms offer.
5. Dell considers bundling virtualization on motherboards
It’s one of those ideas that you read and say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
6. Linux and virtualisation are ideal partners: Dell
Virtual machines are easier to build if you are running Linux, according to Dell’s chief technical officer Kevin Kettler.
7. VMware Predicts Death To Operating Systems
Mendel Rosenblum envisions a world run by virtualization appliances where software makers wouldn’t need a bulky or complex OS.
8. Dell Hoping Hypervisor Will Open Up Desktop Linux Market
Plenty of vendors are jumping into the virtualization marketplace, so it will be interesting if Dell is able to garner a following with this approach, especially if the sole purpose is to help break open the enterprise Linux market.
9. Dual Booting Windows-Linux: The Dell Option
Generally when a company is considering an upgrade to new workstations or notebook computers, they will elect to use Microsoft Windows. Not out of love for the operating system, rather out of understanding for the importance of familiarity and compatibility with the existing office ecosystem. Sounds like a good approach, until the ecosystem breaks down with a security breach targeting the OS used almost exclusively by the business in question.
10. Microsoft Says No Windows Virtualization on Top of Linux
Microsoft will not allow Windows Vista or Windows XP to be virtualized on top of Linux, Sam Ramji, the director of Microsoft’s open-source software lab, said at the annual LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here Aug. 7.
11. Vista Aiding Linux Desktop, Strategist Says
For example, a number of companies have moved back to Windows XP after deploying Vista, Crawford said, before quoting Scott Granneman, an author, entrepreneur and adjunct professor at Washington University in St. Louis, as saying, “To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just have to work on it.”
12. Dell to stuff hypervisors in flash memory
Dell CTO Kevin Kettler today confirmed these plans during a speech here at LinuxWorld, saying the company expects to see major performance and power-saving improvements by dumping a hypervisor in flash. Customers will basically “boot to a virtual machine-ready” state, he said.
13. Dell plans virtualization-oriented server
Any new x86 server can run virtualization software, but Dell plans to release a model that’s geared specifically to those drawn to the newly mainstream computing trend, CNET News.com has learned.
14. Virtualization: Linux’s killer app
Think about it. Even Microsoft supports running Linux on its Virtual Server product. Why would it do that? Wouldn’t an OS partitioning technology, such as that used by OpenVz or Sun Solaris, be more in keeping with the kind of homogeneous environments that Microsoft would like to see? Why would Microsoft invest its resources to support a virtual machine technology that can only open the door to Linux in the datacenter?
There are some other tactics Microsoft has tried to battle this, until antitrust allegations forced Microsoft to step back. There is clearly a lot of manipulation and market distortion on Microsoft’s behalf.
Xen, as an open source project, seems kaput.
It’s all about proprietary software, including the transition of Xen from OSS to proprietary, courtesy of Microsoft’s Partner of the Year 2008. Microsoft used Citrix as its proxy to hijack Xen away from developers and onto a Windows-only agenda, thus fighting both the GPL and antitrust regulators. We argued this a year ago and our predictions now materialise.
Xen has almost nothing to do with OSS anymore. It has yet to announce some collaborations with Microsoft, if Crosby’s recent interviews/announcement are anything to go by.
Moving on a little, that brings us to Novell too. According to Ron Hovsepian, part of Microsoft’s agreement with Novell was that GNU/Linux should be a guest on a Windows host. It’s all about control to Microsoft. GNU/Linux is treated just like some application on the Big Irons. It’s servitude on Windows servers.
A few days ago, Rex Ballard had posted an analysis that concurs. It is posted below in full.
Message-ID: <02a79375-771f-4d8b-9320-17935bdd8292@p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
From: Rex Ballard <rex.ballard@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux Champions Virtualisation, So Microsoft/Citrix Ruin Xen
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:30:08 -0700 (PDT)
References: <5118696.5gaNpKjB77@schestowitz.com>
On Jul 14, 9:44 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro…@schestowitz.com>
wrote:
> Linux based virtualization – the way to save money and go green
> http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19418/1143/
Server virtualization has been around since the 1960s, and many
companies have known it as VM/CMS. Even when the production server/
mainframes were running in “Native” mode, most companies preferred to
use VM to help manage development environments, test environments, and
staging invironments, so that by the time an application went into
production, administrators could be pretty sure that a new
application, bug fix, or upgrade would work well and not create new
problems in the production environment.
When IBM ported it’s AIX operating system to the ES/9000 mainframe,
they decided to use VM rather than try to create drivers for “bare
metal”.
The critical element is that the underlying “Core” system had to be
designed to optimize memory management, I/O bandwidth, and still
maintain security, performance, reliability, availability,
serviceability. There was also a desire to support load balancing,
resource optimization, and disaster recovery.
> Sun seems to still rely on Xen (despite VirtualBox’ takeover):
>
> Sun xVM hypervisor opens TACC supercomputer to developers
> http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/article/0,28914…
One of the nice things about OSS projects is that when they are
abandoned by their original sponsors, they take on a life of their
own.
Most of you don’t remember WAIS. It was a “search engine” that could
search other servers as well as it’s own repository. The original
WAIS server was released under a GNU type license, but the original
authors eventually created customized and commercialized versions
which were licensed to companies like Dow Jones. Eventually, WAIS Inc
was purchased by AOL for 10 million dollars, which might have led most
people to think that the OSS search engines were dead.
The problem was that the OSS version was still out there, and quickly
evolved into better and better search engine technology, including
features like Digg, WebCrawlers, and commercial variants such as
Verity. Various spin-offs of WAIS and it’s related standards such as
Z.39.50 lead to search engines for companies like Yahoo, Lycos,
InfoSeek, and of course Google.
Ironically, Google was actually based on the original concepts of
Brewster Kahle when he was still working at Thinking Machines Inc.
The original concept was that the engines would index millions of
pages across hundreds or even thousands of low-cost servers, and the
machines would be searched in parallel. Google scaled it to Billions
of documents on thousands of machines.
What made Google more successful than the others was that they made
sure that the only advertizing content being shown with a search was
content that was directly related to the search criteria. For
example, if you wanted to search for information about HDTV, you would
also get links to stores who were able to sell you an HDTV system, but
you wouldn’t get links to beer commercials, 4×4 trucks, and other
searches that might force an advertiser to pay for the display of the
link, even though it was rarely followed. The problem is that all of
those unrelated links reduced the space available to the relevant
information.
Google’s approach led to more links being FOLLOWED, which meant that
Google was the referer, and the result was also much higher number of
actual sales per million hits.
> With Microsoft’s virtual control of Xen (it’s now owned by its Partner of the
> Year), one has to wonder…
>
> Citrix/Microsoft seems to have turned XenSource into assholes.
> http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3758606/Citrix+Virtu…
One of the big problems with the Citrix/Microsoft deal is that Citrix
has pretty much stopped supporting Linux as they primary “Host” OS,
and seems committed to making sure that only Microsoft can be used as
the host desktop OS.
Citrix seems to have completely abandoned the idea of actual
virtualization of desktop systems, which is a key element of the
success of companies like VMWare. The problem is that you have to be
network connected to the server to have access to the Citrix Virtual
Server/Virtual desktop.
Essentially, Citrix is ignoring the very drivers and motivators behind
desktop and server virtualization, and trying to fit Xen into their
old business model.
It’s a bit like when Citrix tried to use ICA and GoToMyPC as a means
to kill off VNC and Linux X11 virtual desktops and graphic displays to
desktop. The strategy “sorta worked” because people did use the
service, but they also had problems with security, connectivity, and
corporate compliance.
Many corporate customers have gone with more secure solutions that
combine ssl, ipsec, LDAP, and e-meetings, which include IRC and VNC
components. The point is that there are better competitors who can
provide better products at lower cost.
> Recent:
> KVM and Xen cofounders engage in war of words
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/virtualization/?p=415
Many people feel that Citrix has illegally abused the Xen OSS licensed
software. Thousands of people contributed software, bug fixes,
enhancements, testing, and risk management to assure the success of
XEN, but they had their own issues. Novell wanted Xen to make Linux
the primary OS, with Windows running as a virtual client. Red Hat
held back because there was so much mischief around Xen and it’s
licenses, especially around Microsoft.
The irony is that Citrix is trying to “kill off” Xen.org and force Xen
customers to use their commercial hypervisor, adopt their patents, and
submit to their license terms. Ultimately, they are trying to kill
off all of the other XEN developers, forcing them either out of the
market, or into their control.
All of this seems to have the hands of Microsoft guiding it.
Remember, Citrix got a huge boost back in 1997 when corporations
started using VNC on Windows 95 to access Windows NT 4.0 desktops.
Later, Microsoft expressly forbid the use of any PC running anything
other than Windows XP to access a remote XP desktop. Furthermore, the
license actually mandates that you use Microsoft’s application (kinda
messed with Citrix there).
> Citrix opens Xen for business, still Linux shy
> ,—-[ Quote ]
> | Xen may have become the de facto virtualization platform for Linux, but,
> | ironically, don’t expect to see Citrix applications running natively on Linux
> | any time soon.
Of course. Microsoft didn’t put $millions into the deal to have Linux
running as the primary OS for XEN. Microsoft wants to control the
desktop completely, and as much of the server as they can possibly do.
The irony is that many corporate customers are out to REDUCE
Microsoft’s control of servers and desktops. They want Linux as the
primary OS with Windows as the client, and even that is only for the
handful of applications that can’t be supported on Linux.
> | “It’s market driven and we never got the uptake on Linux,” Willis said. “Our
> | focus for XenApp (formerly Presentation Server) is as a Windows application
> | which we recommend customers run on bare metal for performance reasons.”
Which means they didn’t find anyone willing to fork over the $millions
that Microsoft was offering to put Linux on the desktop as the primary
Operating system. The irony is that Windows performs better when
Linux is the primary OS, because Disk, I/O, Network, and memory are
more efficiently managed, while Windows tends to suffer from memory
churn, garbage collection pauses, disk drive delays, inefficient disk
accesses, poor disk caching, and other problems which tend to cause
huge pauses, hangs, and waiting.
Remember when Microsoft bragged about how XP would give you a
“Desktop” very quickly rather than having to wait for everything to be
ready? We have learned that this meant that you would see a static
desktop, but you wouldn’t actually be able to DO ANYTHING until the
rest of the start-up was completed. Meanwhile, Linux boots up and
takes about 60 seconds (longer that that “first desktop, but still
pretty good) to come up with a fully functional desktop capable of
running any application you want to launch.
> | Willis said Citrix has partnered with Microsoft to develop Linux extensions
> | for its Hyper-V platform.
> `—-
That just seems like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. 
> http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;311906363
> Ubuntu picks KVM over Xen for virtualization
> ,—-[ Quote ]
> | KVM will be built into Ubuntu’s next version, called Hardy Heron and due in
> | April. “For the Hardy Heron release, we’ve really picked up the
> | virtualization ball. Virtualization is making its way into data centers and
> | onto developer workstations everywhere. Even ‘regular’ users are using it to
> | run Ubuntu on Mac OS X all the time,” Hansen said. “Virtualization has been
> | on our agenda for a long time, but it became a top priority at UDS (Ubuntu
> | Developer Summit) in November. We could see that demand for it was growing.”
> `—-
>
> http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9867657-39.html?part=rss&subj=news&t…
This is a very real trend, and one of the challenges for any
virtualization vendor is trying to keep up with the work being done by
VMWare. VMWare was very smart. They provided “free” applications
like VMWare Player, and VMWare Server, which allows people to use
VMWare “Appliances” generated with VMWare Workstation or ESX. In
addition, they have VMWare Converter, which can be used to save any
existing Windows environment (desktop or server), with or without the
converter footprint, and use that Windows environment as an
“Appliance”.
The result is that a Linux user can purchase a PC with Windows XP or
Vista installed, an external USB drive, and generate a Windows VMWare
“appliance” on the USB drive. Then they can install Linux and copy
the appliance back to their PC Linux drive. Then, the user can take
“snapshots” of the Appliance, allowing user with a corrupted Windows
Appliance to fall back to an earlier snapshot.
All that free software seems to make no sense, until you start to see
that if you have VMWare Workstation, you can change the sizes of
memory, hard drive, and peripherals. The net result is that lots of
people end up buying workstation.
As people start to become with VMWare Workstation, they begin to
realize that ESX is a really practical server solution, and then they
see that upgrading to Virtual Center gives them disaster recovery,
load balancing, fail-over, and reliable back-up/recovery that are much
easier to manage than having to create new images from scratch on
“Bare metal” (as Citrix reccomends), which means that the system is
easier to manage and deploy.
By offering some free applications, and getting VMWare on the desktop,
the company makes corporate decision makers MUCH more receptive to the
VMWare solutions. Suddenly, a VMWare player user is saying “Yes, we
can run on VMWare” because he’s using it. Before long, you have
VMware Virtual Center running on blade servers with a few hundred
processor cores, and balancing the load optimally. A free application
leads to several million dollars in Virtual Center sales.
Then we go back to Citrix.
> Related:
> Citrix strays far from XenSource’s original open source mission
> ,—-[ Quote ]
> | “Citrix is not a virtualization company,” said Phil Montgomery, Senior
> | Director of Citrix’s Virtualization and Management Division. “We’re not
> | trying to be another VMware. Citrix is an application delivery software
> | company.”
Put another way, Citrix WON’T be offering something like “Converter”
to put Windows into a VM image that can be started under a Linux
system running Xen.
Microsoft hasn’t been particularly worried about the success of it’s
partners lately, and they seem quite willing to have Citrix lobotomize
Xen, go bankrupt, and then claim that virtualization was a failure,
just to try and provide “VaporWare” that is “Just like VMWare”.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has it’s own virtualization solutions, which it
will probably start shipping as “Shovel-ware” if they can’t stop
VMWare any other way.
I’m sure that Microsoft will call this an “Operating System
Enhancement” rather than a strategic function being provided by a
competitive market, which Microsoft will try to strangle using it’s
monopoly power.
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1984
> Citrix strips XenSource of virtualization, open source…everything
>
> ,—-[ Quote ]
> | Citrix either got completely snowed in the acquisition or, much more likely,
> | it’s getting pressure from its bosom-buddy, Microsoft. What it’s not getting
> | is much value for its $500 million.
> `—-
It’s becoming more and more obvious that Microsoft is using Citrix as
a “sock puppet” to throw off the DOJ, EU, and other antitrust
regulators, in an attempt to do what it did to Netscape.
Remember, Microsoft was able to convince the NSF to rewrite the
licenses unilaterally, so that they could pirate Mosaic code, written
and managed by many employees who had joined Netscape, in an attempt
to “Cut off Netscape’s Air Supply”. The result was Internet Explorer
and Outlook, complete with an 8-lane-highway for viruses, worms, and
other malware.
[snip other great references]
It’s pretty clear that Ballmer is more than willing to tell Citrix and
corporate customers to “Bend over and crack a smile, it won’t hurt a
bit, you’ll even like it”.
In conclusion, it’s no longer the Xen that promised its contributors zen. It’s Citrix. By association, it’s the Microsoft ecosystem. It was devoured.
VMWare mustn’t be taken on a similar type of ride under EMC’s reign. EMC, just like Citrix, is one of Microsoft’s top partners and it controls VMWare, in charge of which it put a Microsoft man. █
“We believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability.”
–Steve Ballmer
Microsoft continues to show its total disregard for Free software. It only wants to exploit it.
Going against a hugely popular saying, Microsoft is firm in saying “never” to open source. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer had a single answer to a question presented at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 regarding the possibility that the company’s flagship products will veer away from its current proprietary business mode. “No!”
Dana Blankenhorn responds to this too. He politely asks Microsoft’s CEO to just STFU.
I hate to go all Bond villain on Mr. Ballmer, but the question of whether Microsoft talks to open source, about open source, or even engages open source is just not relevant any more.
We are past the point with Microsoft where open source needs to fear the Giant of Redmond. Despite Mr. Ballmer’s bluster, the company lacks the legal weaponry to destroy open source, with patents or anything else.
We have done some research on Microsoft’s relationship with (and attitude towards) Free software. Two days ago we focused on Microsoft’s corporate role in SourceForge. We dealt with this before. Responding to the latest report, Groklaw raises an issue: “Question - Has Sourceforge lost its cotton pickin’ mind? Answer - Yes. Or else Microsoft is an inspiration. Who wouldn’t want to help Microsoft figure out who to sue?”
For those who are new to this, here is the gist:
Photo under the GNU Free Documentation license
Well, well. What have we here?
Banshee by default in Intrepid [Ubuntu 8.10]
Since F-Spot is installed by default Mono is now part of the base
install. So outside of all the debate around Mono, have we considered
installing Banshee as the default media player in Intrepid now that
Banshee 1.0 is released?
Banshee is of course Mono based. Novell seems happy about it because it gains control of the Free Desktop. Watch the bottom of the homepage: “The Banshee name is a registered trademark of Novell. This does not include Banshee source code, which is licensed under the MIT X11 license.”
“Banshee is of course Mono based. Novell seems happy about it because it gains control of the Free Desktop.”Novell is the next Corel. Let’s say that again: Novell. Is. The next Corel. This is how Mono is likely to take over GNOME. First the applications, just as we predicted. It’s infecting other distributions too, including Fedora, which is perhaps only beginning to wake up and smell the coffee.
Here is how it goes: First you neglect or phase out applications that are written using other (non-.NET) P\Ls. The core of GNOME needn’t be rewritten — yet. It’s like a staged introduction which application maturity and priority might make inevitable.
It’s another case of “embrace, redefine, and extend” technology. It’s a strategy that revolves around dependency and weakening of the GNU GPL. Hyper-V’s purpose, for example, is partly to ensure that Windows is always the host and Linux just a guest. That guest, moreover, must be the Microsoft-taxed SLES.
Virtualisation is hugely important to GNU/Linux, as today’s news reminds us. Microsoft wants to put an end to this using money, manipulation, and acquisitions.
With Microsoft’s virtual control of Xen (it’s owned by its Partner of the Year, which begs for similar questions about VMWare), one has to wonder about the effect on Sun too. Microsoft is stealing critical bits of the FOSS stack. Sun tries to play a similar game; so did Oracle a long time ago.
Citrix/Microsoft seem to have turned Xen rather sour of the subject of Free software. Now there’s a confrontation.
A war of words has erupted between two bitter opponents in the Xen open source-based hypervisor (define) market. Citrix, which owns XenSource and drives the Xen project, has insulted arch-rival Virtual Iron, saying, among other things, that it owns the hypervisor while Virtual Iron just consumes the product.
This fired up Virtual Iron’s chief strategy officer Tony Asaro, who slapped back by saying Citrix chief technology officer Simon Crosby is out of line because Virtual Iron has been a substantial contributor to the Xen project and Xen belongs to the open source community.
A fuming Asaro told InternetNews.com “the dangerous thing Simon said is that Citrix owns the hypervisor. That’s wrong; Citrix bought Xen and sells the Citrix commercial product and are the drivers or owners of the open source project, but it’s the community that works on open source.”
Crosby’s “irresponsible statement about the open source community is counter to the philosophy of open source which he’s the biggest proponent of,” Asaro added.
There are some announcements to come from Citrix/Xen and Microsoft, according to Crosby.
“We will do some buying of companies that are built around open-source products.”
–Steve Ballmer
t was less than a day ago that we explained what had probably happened with VMWare. The story is similar to that of XenSource, which we have painted endlessly before as a victim of Microsoft and its ecosystem. It’s all about platforms, not virtualisation technologies, which Microsoft merely uses to defend its crown jewels. Virtualisation caught Microsoft asleep on the wheel and when it woke up it seemed too late. it has no choice but to play dirty to catch up.
Anyway, shortly after the grabbing of XenSource, Citrix and Microsoft celebrated with a big trophy. Citrix became Microsoft’s Partner of the Year. Now comes a vanity site which is similar to that of Microsoft and Novell.
magnify360 Brings Personalization to Citrix-Microsoft Website, OneGreatPartner.com
magnify360 (www.magnify360.com), the leading provider of 1-to-1 personalization technology, has been tapped to build OneGreatPartner.com, a Citrix community site for premier partner, Microsoft.
This orgy of influence and assets is part of Microsoft’s attempts to turn rivals into partners. With so many Linux companies and much GNU/Linux affinity out there, it’s hard to compete. If Microsoft could change the positions of its opponents, e.g. have VMWare favour Windows over GNU/Linux, then it gains great traction. Novell is another such example, not to mention Corel, XenSource, and even Xandros, which helps with OOXML. Turbolinux too showed off its love for Microsoft. Watch this video of Apple. It’s quite an eye opener. █
“Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand.”
–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO
Permalink
Leave Your Comment Send this to a friend View as PDF
Rememeber who owns almost all of VMWare: EMC, from whom this latest move came.
June 30th, 2008:
Release: EMC Honored as 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year
EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced it has won the 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year award for Business Process and Integration Solutions.
The company was chosen out of an international field of top Microsoft partners for delivering market-leading customer solutions built on Microsoft technology.
July 8th, 2008:
Quick Mention: Microsoft Insider Takes Over VMWare
What we did not mention the other day is that the current (now former) CEO was actually thrown out, despite the fact that she has been there since day one… and until the hugely-successful IPO. Diane Greene became a threat to Microsoft, being the Linux enabler that her company had evolved to be.
“Wait and watch how VMWare deemphasises Linux over time, letting just KVM compete with the ‘Big Boys’.”Remember the story about Citrix, Microsoft’s Partner of the Year also in June 2008. Citrix grabbed Xen, which Red Hat, [cref 245 Ubuntu] and many other GNU/Linux vendors depended on. XenSource too had gained Microsoft insiders prior to the deal and it even moved to Redmond [1, 2, 3].
Watch and learn how Microsoft interferes with or ‘hijacks’ its competitors, including Novell and Corel. Novell has already agreed, as part of its deal with Microsoft, to be a slave (guest) on Windows hosts in the datacentre.
Where are the regulators? Is this competition? It’s more like market perversion. Wait and watch how VMWare deemphasises Linux over time, letting just KVM compete with the ‘Big Boys’. It’s another Xen shuffle. All over again. █
Monopoly-abusing executive to make matters worse
We wrote about him and warned about it when he first joined EMC. We also shared a good introduction to him. Now he’s leading the company that competes with his former long-time employer. It’s clear that Microsoft will play the ‘frienemies’ card, just as it did when signing the deals with Novell, XenSource and Corel (it even acquired the second one, by proxy). Who was behind this tactless appointment? It’s a non-compete strategy. Et tu, VMWare? Welcome KVM. █
It seems safe to say that people have come to grips with the fact that, after its deal with Microsoft, Linspire won’t be quite so visible anymore. It put itself in this downward spiral.
The company changed its name from Lindows, pulled out of an IPO, and then did a licensing deal with Microsoft, much like the ones signed by Xandros and Novell - only Linspire’s was even less popular.
Whoever signed this deal at the time either did not speak to a lawyer or was simply too foolish (and greedy). An internal post mortem could reveal who is responsible for the end of Linspire. At the moment, all that’s left is a legal mess and an abandoned plan [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. CNR is a non-asset despite what the following article tells.
So maybe this is the real value of the Xandros/Linspire deal: a humane package manager, a way to install external software in Linux that doesn’t scare off the uninitiated. I still like the idea of everything-in-the-repository for the sake of consistency, but the more possibilities we have on the table, the better.
CNR is already GPL-licensed though. What’s more, other analogous (and very satisfactory) solutions already exists. Even Kevin Carmony came to realise that Ubuntu, for instance, did not require CNR.
All in all, is seems like this so-called acquisition is just lipstick on a pig. It would be just embarrassing had Linspire shut down rather than sold itself.
Interestingly enough, Xandros might not end here. Pay attention to this.
Londini isn’t ruling out more acquisitions of this sort by Xandros in the near future.
Xandros’ CEO, Andreas Typaldos, has acknowledged that the move forms part of the company’s desire to expand into enterprise markets. “This is part of Xandros’ larger plan and vision for being a full product company to service both the consumer/OEM and enterprise markets,” he said.
Xandros has already acquired (ruined) Scalix, which now pays ‘Microsoft tax’ as well. So although Scalix never signed a deal with Microsoft, the Xandros takeover had a similar effect. They signed a quiet agreement later (’licensing’ protocols).
Companies like Xandros and Novell are a death blow to any FOSS entity they touch. It would be an issue if PlateSpin, for example, was a FOSS company. XenSource, on the oither hand, became a prisoner of Redmond because of Citrix. █
Permalink
Leave Your Comment Send this to a friend View as PDF
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. Learn more
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. Learn more
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. Learn more
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. Learn more
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. Learn more
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy. Learn more
