[CS-FSLUG] My View on the MS/Novell Deal

[Don Parris]

Josiah,  I would encourage you to submit this to LXer.  Our Story Submission
How-to explains, well, how to submit an article or link and includes a link
to the story submission form.

Anyone is free to submit links or original articles to LXer.  If you wait
for me to get around to it, you might not want to hold your breath. ;-)


On 11/9/06, Ritchie, Josiah S. <jritchie at bible.edu> wrote:
>
>  I posted this message in response to a Linux Journal article. If one of
> our journalists sees fit to make use of it, I don't require attribution or
> any such thing, but I would like to see the message sent out more broadly to
> at least insight discussion in a more positive direction. I welcome your
> feedback.
>
>
>
> JSR/
>
>
>
> --
>
> Our Mission
>
> Technology and Hospitality for God's Workmen
>
> http://missions.ritchietribe.net
>
>
>
> -------
>
>
>
> It's about the freedom of information; there is nothing more at risk in
> this deal.
>
>
>
> Will the fact that Novell has new information in its hands previously
> locked up mean that information is more free? Novell certainly seems to be
> arguing that information will be more free because they will share what they
> can with the community as a whole.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, the FUD force of MS marketing will flood the market with Pro
> Novell advertising that will muddy the view of true freedom. Their support
> for Novell may derail the conversation about free software (information)
> that currently surrounds the Open Source movement. Will this mean that open
> source software will be used by more people who don't appreciate its freedom
> than ever before? Certainly.
>
>
>
> What, in my opinion, remains to be seen is if the open source movement
> will damage this relationship or use it as an opportunity to educate new
> members about freedom.
>
>
>
> Perhaps this is an opportunity to extend the open source ideals to a new
> demographic on the tails of MS marketing rather than a viral infection of
> the GPL. If we withdraw ourselves from Novell, we loose the chance of
> sharing the great ideals that hold the open source movement together with a
> whole new group of people, and one that is bound to be significant and
> represent a potentially significant force in open source support.
>
>
>
> Also, if we withdraw from Novell, we loose a lot of great friends of the
> community such as Aaron Bockover and Nat Friedman who are doing great work
> on the Banshee and Beagle respectively.
>
>
>
> Finally, we all know that the threat and process of a lawsuit can be
> damage enough, whether there is grounds for the suit or not. Simply consider
> the protection money the SCO folks drummed up in the far fetched case they
> tried on us. It isn't an admission, it is a protection to its customers from
> baseless threats much like Novell provided from SCO in the past. Too bad
> they couldn't do it for the whole FOSS community or Linux in general, but
> that would have been a bit much to ask.
>
>
>
> We have a unique opportunity to educate MS users who will be encouraged to
> switch by MS themselves to Novell and will then have the skill set to go to
> any distro they like. There is a better way to make the deal backfire while
> advancing FOSS ideals.
>
>
>
> Let FOSS do the embracing this time and beat MS at its own game.
>
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>
>
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