Novell is helping users migrate to Vista?!

[angryfirelord]

Just happened to come across this page:
http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/vista_migration.html

You've been waiting months for the release of Windows Vista, and now it's here. But are you ready to make the move? New management solutions from Novell® can help. We've created this migration and management resource center to help you plan, manage and execute a successful migration including: analyst reports, best practices, web seminars and white papers. We'll be adding new items regularly, so check back often.
I could see migrating from Vista, but to Vista? C'mon Novell, this is absurd. Show a little backbone and stop letting Microsoft employees run your business!

Fortunately, I can put my faith in Canonical in that they won't sell out their user base for dirty money.

[vexorian]

Dude, I was about to post this thread! Anyways, this is a new low they just hit, hope they don't get worse than this.

[RebounD11]

Must be part of the MS-Novell deal... Still I will use OpenSuSE not SLES or SLED. the deal doesn't affect the community side of the story.

[DouglasAWh]

Novell was never built around FOSS like Canonical/Red Hat are. They just happened to do Linux too.

I'm not defending Novell, I'm just saying, it's not exactly like they are selling out.

[RebounD11]

They gave the OpenSource Community a lot, I mean a huge lot, and I don't think someone asked them to. we should be grateful for that. I don't think any other company/person gave this much to the community.

[jrharvey]

I agree with the last guy. They have given open source alot. At least they are not soley relying on windows. Although I would have much rather seen a migration to linux page.

[~LoKe]

Uh...Novell has been doing work with Microsoft/Windows for at least 10 years now.

[Incense]

This is for companies running SLES on the server, and windows on the desktop. It's a resource for aiding their customers in upgrading their desktop OS. It would be really stupid of them to not provide support for their customers just because they are not running a 100% linux based system. They also have this page..

http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/compare-to-vista.html

[Incense]

Novell was never built around FOSS like Canonical/Red Hat are. They just happened to do Linux too.

I'm not defending Novell, I'm just saying, it's not exactly like they are selling out.

They pretty much only did Netware until 2003 when they bought SuSE and Ximian. Now they are one of the few companies who pay devs to improve open source projects like KDE, Gnome, Mono, and a lot of applications that are all GPL, and as such given back to the community.

[vexorian]

I am not sure why people like so much to defend this company, helping users migrate to vista is one thing, but besides of the aggressive deal, they keep doing things that I would not welcome. Whether they help open source a lot does not entitle to attack Linux as they do. This duality they present looks senseless to me, but what's certain is that their helpful actions should not draw attention away from their aggressive behavior.


The deal doesn't affect the community side of the story

Yes, it does. Cause the deal 's ultimate objective is to stop free Linux.


It's not really like they are selling outI don't really mind about them selling out (and they did, since they always were MS competition before the deal) what troubles me is that they felt entitled to also sell Linux out, and they can contribute to it one million times, it would still not belong to them, like they want to think.

[bruce89]

I think it's pitched at companies using XP who they want to sell stuff to. Not quite sure why they'd care about Vista though.

[SunnyRabbiera]

So how soon will Novell become like SCO and hold patent claims over everything.

[justin whitaker]

Novell is a business, and they are trying to survive in the cutthroat enterprise IT world, where if you don't have an easy way to do something on tap, the client starts calling Redmond.

I applaud Novell for their efforts to make Open Source better, but they also benefit from that as well.....

Anyone actually taken a look at the Novel license? It's restrictive, for something open source...

[SunnyRabbiera]

Novell is a business, and they are trying to survive in the cutthroat enterprise IT world, where if you don't have an easy way to do something on tap, the client starts calling Redmond.

I applaud Novell for their efforts to make Open Source better, but they also benefit from that as well.....

Anyone actually taken a look at the Novel license? It's restrictive, for something open source...
its because its not, in the next five years Novell will probably wind up like SCO.
Applaud while you can but when they are finally under microsofts control its going to be sue city.
This is why I applaud Redhat, even though they too have some sort of deal with MS they are resisting its efforts to control them...
Novell is a big wuss.

[Jimmey]

its because its not, in the next five years Novell will probably wind up like SCO..

Where are you folks getting this stuff?

From the link, I see Novell trying to make money by being booksmart about Vista. The service seems to be a "you already want Vista - Pay us to help you get it" sort of deal. Microsoft need not even been involved in this bit of Novell business - It's just a way for them to make money. Not to dissimilarly too some of their Linux solutions.

I'm not to clued up about the Microsoft-Novell deal, but having cast my eyes over the Novell FAQ about the whole situation (http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/faq.html), I don't see much harm coming from it.

Having said that, I'll admit that I don't know very much about the subject, and maybe I'm wrong. But it doesn't help if you make seemingly outrageous comments without any evidence to back them up.

[macogw]

Novell was never built around FOSS like Canonical/Red Hat are. They just happened to do Linux too.

I'm not defending Novell, I'm just saying, it's not exactly like they are selling out.

Exactly. Novell Netware, their client software for Windows, is their main thing. SuSE is kinda what they do on the side. Of course they're going to have stuff for Windows. Most of what they do is help large organizations (like my school) lock down Windows clients so that they don't mess up the network and make network-wide changes easy on admins.

[angryfirelord]

I'm not to clued up about the Microsoft-Novell deal, but having cast my eyes over the Novell FAQ about the whole situation, I don't see much harm coming from it.
Novell FAQ? I wouldn't read something that was part of the deal. I would get my information from an outside source. (http://boycottnovell.com/)

But it doesn't help if you make seemingly outrageous comments without any evidence to back them up.
It's hard to provide evidence since a deal like this has never been stuck before. But I think I know what SunnyRabbiera is saying:

You have a company that's actively contributing code to the linux project. However, with this deal, Novell gains access to some Microsoft code. The problem is not all of that code has been inspected properly by the EMCA (or by all of the developers) and doesn't quite meet standards. (example: Mono in Gnome)

Five years goes by. Three outcomes are now possible:
-Microsoft doesn't renew/renews the deal and nothing happens.
-Microsoft doesn't renew and launches lawsuits against Novell and/or Linux project, showing what patented code was used "illegally".
-Microsoft renews, but gets Novell to launch lawsuits for them. However, SuSE Linux will be "protected" because of the deal.

The problem I have with Novell is that they were never very open from that start. Novell had to pick up something else because Netware was loosing out to Windows, so they assimilated SuSE to replace Netware. But even then, they still were very closed until recently, when they created openSuSE.