[Sussex] Some more thoughts on the Microsoft/Novel deal

[Ian mu]

No need to try not to flame :), not even sure there's a need to think about
it, it's only an opinion of mine. You actually cite one of the things I was
thinking actually. Things like the ms fonts afaik aren't allowed to be
distributed unless in original form? Which I assume is why most distros are
flakey with them. Now Suse would be able to do this without problem unlike
other distros.

I'm not stating that there aren't concerns over other issues at all, far
from it.

On 11/18/06, Nico Kadel-Garcia <nkadel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ian mu wrote:
> > Still think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I don't think
> > that code (any gpl code at all) is at issue, because it would only be
> > used with other code protected by the gpl and so on. I'm guessing its
> > none gpl, closed source solutions that the "partnership" is looking
> > towards.
> I'll try not to flame here, but suffice to say that I've known Mr.
> Stallman personally since the mid 80's. The FSF's concern over this is
> well-founded, and the creation of the GPLv3 was aimed at avoiding
> exactly this sort of confusing mess.
>
> Look at CIFS file sharing and the history of Samba and of Novell's
> Netware, and the history of SPF and the patent-encumbered SenderID tools
> duct-taped on top of it and leading to it effective destruction in
> Marid. Also look at the new XML format for MS Office, NTFS drivers for
> Linux, and the planned XML based WinFS originally planned for the Vista
> release. Open source development is seriously hampered by Microsoft
> legal threats and litigation. Novell has just entered an interesting
> position to have Microsoft protected tools for it, that are not under a
> real open source license of any kind. SuSE already distributes, although
> historically rather badly, non-open-source tools such as NVidia drivers
> and MS fonts.
>
> Microsoft also has a long, long history of intellectual property theft,
> such as DOS, the Windows interface, and David Cutler and his software
> team at DEC, hired away to create NT and leading to some fascinating out
> of court settlements. An agreement not to sue about such violations  is
> of much more benefit to Microsoft.
>
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