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View Full Version : Microsoft and Novell - worst case scenario.



MaximB
November 11th, 2006, 12:14 PM
I don't think that the deal between M$ and Novell was good for Linux and Open Source.
but what do you predict that is the worst case scenario ? what is the worst thing that could happen to Linux and Open source due to the deal ?
please explain.

carlgm
November 11th, 2006, 01:01 PM
The increased sales of tin-foil hats may mean you will be indirectly be funding Microsoft, if said tin-foil hat companies use Microsoft?

Other than that, nothing is going to happen.

Perfect Storm
November 11th, 2006, 01:03 PM
Worst case scenario? Just take a look what they did with Corel Linux back in the old days.

*/me was one a happy Corel Linux user*

MaximB
November 11th, 2006, 01:43 PM
actually I never heard of Corel Linux story with M$...can you explain please ?

xyz
November 11th, 2006, 01:50 PM
I had not heard about that either:
Dropping GNU/Linux helps restore Corel profitability (http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/06/29/2238229&from=rss)

Perfect Storm
November 11th, 2006, 01:56 PM
I'll make it short. Corel Linux was owned by http://www.corel.com/ (maker of core draw, word perfect etc.) at the time Corel wanted to make it into the OS world with their own linux distro and made some very serious attempts. You could buy Corel Linux box with 6 CDs plus a thick manual etc very slick. Until the day Microsoft bought enough shares to stop the project from one day to another.

That's why I'm very sceptical about the Microsoft and Novell issue. I don't buy it that Microsoft want to cooporate or anything even alot of people praise it and tells otherwise. I have seen what the did to the distro I used once and I diffently don't think with Balmer in charge will make the situation brighter. There's something fishy and underhanded about it.

http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/06/29/2238229&from=rss

mdsmedia
November 11th, 2006, 02:04 PM
Although I don't know much about the Corel Linux story, I just don't believe that MS is doing this for anyone but MS. There just has to be something underhanded involved here, but can Novell be caught out AGAIN?

This is the big difference I see between MS and Google. Although Google can't be said to be clean, MS have a record of partnering, cleaning out and squashing their partners.

fuscia
November 11th, 2006, 03:06 PM
"i don't avoid women, mandrake, but i do deny them my essence."

darkhatter
November 11th, 2006, 03:22 PM
More Companies are having mixed windows and Linux environments, and they want them to work better together. Novell has costumers with mixed Linux and Windows. With this deal Linux and Windows will work together in mixed environments. Microsoft has no interest in Linux, its what their costumers want.

djsroknrol
November 12th, 2006, 12:17 AM
I've already voiced my opinion on the positive side of things, so here's my take on the negative side of this....

I agree with AI...They could choke the life of Novell, just like they did to Corel. And I was an avid fanboy of Corel all the way to Corel Draw 8 and Wordperfect 6...Oh, sorry.....Novell owned by then....:(

professor_chaos
November 12th, 2006, 12:38 AM
Worst case, Microsoft's stock goes thru the roof and they rule all. Then builds big bomb and wipes out every living thing on the planet, causing chain reaction and the entire universe collapses in on itself. ;) But thats the worst case scenario.

More likely though, M$ plays nice with Novell and linux benifits for the duration of the 5year agreement. All the time, M$ gets its foot in the server market. Then the other foot and then M$ dominates the desktop and the server market.
I don't think this will happen but, it might.

dhalgren
November 21st, 2006, 09:52 PM
More likely though, M$ plays nice with Novell and linux benifits for the duration of the 5year agreement...

I love optimism, I really do. I just think that what in the UK and Australia is called "****-eyed optimism" (I don't know why, but it is a good phrase, indicating a totally unrealistic optimism) deserve to be applauded with great laughter and a rousing cheer.

I do not know what M$ will do, but to my knowledge they have never played nice with anyone, except perhaps their bank.

They will find some way to cheat and harm novell, for the second or third time around, and it will harm linux also.

useResa
November 22nd, 2006, 10:54 PM
Had a discussion at work about this topic, and a colleague of mine made an interesting remark.
Let me run this by you:

M$ started out by taking QDOS and building a window on top of it.
What about the thought that M$ is about to do the same to Linux?
They take Suse as a basis and built a (naturally non-open) GUI on top of it, making it "accessible" for people.
However to do this properly they need an ally in Linux land and they abuse the Suse deal for this.

Like to hear your reaction to this thought, what doesn't sound too strange to me. And this immediately indicates my worst case scenario.

smoker
November 22nd, 2006, 11:50 PM
would ms be able to charge for a 'windows lite' based on suse tho?

MaximB
November 22nd, 2006, 11:53 PM
but GNU/Linux is GPL ...they must release it under GPL if they uses the code.
they cannot sell it....right ?

WinterWeaver
November 23rd, 2006, 12:10 AM
So, I've read some articles, and did some research, and already we can see what's behind the M$ shroud...

M$ have said that they have debt to recover from violated software patents, and claim that they can still collect from other linux distros, but that Novel is exempt from this.

LUCKILY, we can see that the GPL is being changed to fight back against this deal.

Here is one of the latest article that I found:
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2169236/microsoft-novell-deal-shaky

---
Personally, I don't trust this deal. M$ is not about competition, they are ALL about control.

useResa
November 23rd, 2006, 02:49 PM
but GNU/Linux is GPL ...they must release it under GPL if they uses the code.
they cannot sell it....right ?

They will not be able to sell the OS (Suse), but I think they are free to built and sell a not-open application (say Windows) that runs on top of this OS and by which users can easily access the software within the OS.
And as such basically do the same thing they are doing now but then on a Linux OS.

beast2k
November 24th, 2006, 12:09 AM
Whatever comes of this "arrangement" I hope that in the spirit of open source Suse contributes any and all code that Microsoft gives them back to the cause so we can all benefit from the deal. If any distro is going to make a "deal with the devil" we had all better make the most of it. Think about all the reasons people dont use linux and the big one (for me and my experiences) is "My insert windows only software here won't work with Linux so I can't use it" this "deal" could go along way toward solving this, and it is good timing right before a new release from Microsoft.

darkhatter
November 24th, 2006, 02:14 AM
Whatever comes of this "arrangement" I hope that in the spirit of open source Suse contributes any and all code that Microsoft gives them back to the cause so we can all benefit from the deal. If any distro is going to make a "deal with the devil" we had all better make the most of it. Think about all the reasons people dont use linux and the big one (for me and my experiences) is "My insert windows only software here won't work with Linux so I can't use it" this "deal" could go along way toward solving this, and it is good timing right before a new release from Microsoft.

Novell is going to give it all back, its all gpl

beast2k
November 24th, 2006, 10:25 AM
I sure hope so, the deal is done we as users have to live with it, so we may as well use any info or code to our benefit. Some people would have us take the moral high road in this case I don't see the point of that. Try for example to imagine what the people over at Debian are thinking...