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

[Timothy Butler]

Hi Don,
	Josiah's (expanded) article is up on OFB if your interested in  
aggregating it over at LXer:

	http://www.ofb.biz/safari/article/407.html

	I just sent it in to your system. I meant to post that on the list  
and didn't get around to it (oops!).

	By the way, do you guys have feeds somehow go automatically into the  
submissions system? I notice frequently you pick up on OFB articles  
incredibly fast! I seem to remember from back in the LinuxDailyNews  
days Rick (Lehrbaum) and I had talked about using some kind of nifty  
automatic submissions software that Dave was developing for LXer.

	-Tim

On Nov 16, 2006, at 6:10 PM, Don Parris wrote:

> 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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---
Timothy R. Butler | "The theologian who labors without joy is not a
Editor, OfB.biz   | theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts
tbutler at ofb.biz   | and boring ways of  speaking are intolerable in
timothybutler.us  | this field."
                                                       -- Karl Barth