>>> On Fri, Nov 3, 2006 at 7:44 PM, in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Greg Dekoenigsberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> Yes, you need to switch to KUbuntu immediately. Because of a corporate >>> agreement between Novell and Microsoft that nobody knows what it is >>> about and that does most likely neither affect you nor the openSUSE >>> project at all. > > You're hiding your head in the sand if you actually believe this. The > implications of Novell's actions today are *crystal* clear to the rest of > the open source world.
Really? And what are they? > Novell is now trying to claim that *their* version of Linux is free of > patent risks, and that everyone else's Linux isn't. Section 7 of the GPL > was written *precisely* to prevent this tactic. Please back this up with facts. > Here's the real meat of the problem: > > If Novell ever distributes code to any project under the GPL, and that > code infringes a M$ patent, and M$ tries to assert patent rights on anyone > in that patent, Novell immediately loses the right to distribute that code > under the GPL, per section 7. Eben Moglen, counsel for the Free Software > Foundation, has already said as much. You obviously didn't listen to the press conference, nor did you read the FAQ. Whatever stuff Novell distributes (under GPL or otherwise) for Linux, will already be cleared from MS IP infringements. The deal with MS says that we have to make sure it is so. So it is a win not only Novell, but for everyone else in the community. > You signed a patent agreement with M$ for speculative protection. And > you'd better believe that the greater open source community will hold you > accountable for your choice. Novell developers will find it *incredibly* > difficult to work upstream now. Really. How come that SUN can be involved? They also have agreements with MS. They are really no different compared to Novell. > You can't have it both ways. Either you believe in open source, or you > don't. And by trying to use "patent protection" as a competitive > advantage, Novell has made it clear which side of the fence they stand on. So just because RH have a philosophy that it won't use any closed source, does that mean everybody else have to do the same or be banished? > The sad irony: I don't believe that SuSE would ever have made this deal > as an independent company. You believing doesn't make it a fact. > I've watched opensuse with interest since its inception. I always kind of > figured that, as opensuse matured, the opensuse and Fedora communities > might have had opportunities to work together directly. I guess that > won't happen now. Too bad. Well, if the Fedora community wants to be that narrow, then I guess there's nothing much the openSUSE community can do about it? > -- g Cheers, Magnus --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
