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It's "Novell" by the way, not "Novel". Anyway:
> Novel cried foul, but hasn’t actually done anything to stop or reverse the damage (fear) they have helped Microsoft spread.
This is not true. They've persistently said that Microsoft have no grounding on that point at all. So really it just makes Microsoft look silly.
> Novel may have been naive
Which part of Novell getting a lot of money, boosting its Linux engineering team significantly, selling more copies of SUSE Linux Enterprise, growing stocks... is Novell looking "naive"?
This is not true. They've persistently said that Microsoft have no grounding on that point at all.
Then the deal wasn't necessary.
So really it just makes Microsoft look silly.
You're just exceptionally naive if you believe that. All that's happened is that Microsoft have managed to create the impression amongst Novell's customers, and corpote customers elsewhere, that Linux and open source software infringes on Microsoft's patents and property.
Which part of Novell getting a lot of money, boosting its Linux engineering team significantly, selling more copies of SUSE Linux Enterprise, growing stocks... is Novell looking "naive"?
Which part of Novell getting a one-off payment to give Microsoft what it wants, Novell getting very little in the way of the interoperability we've all heard of and selling copies of SLES through Microsoft, where part of the agreement is that these servers have to be members of a Windows domain with Windows servers, did you fail to understand?





Member since:
2006-10-25
Your very peculiar choice of analogy aside, you are missing a few key points.
Microsoft used the deal with Novel to threaten Linux. Not Red Hat, not Ubuntu, but Linux itself.
M.A.D. (your analogy) exists in the patent world without deals. And there your analogy falls short.
Microsoft was not attempting to aid the legitimacy of Linux or protect itself from Novel patents. Microsoft very quickly made it clear that the entire purpose of agreeing not to sue Novel was to gain one or more major Linux distro to “admit” that Linux infringed upon Microsoft patents.
Novel made money off the deal. Microsoft paid them. When Microsoft betrayed them, Novel cried foul, but hasn’t actually done anything to stop or reverse the damage (fear) they have helped Microsoft spread.
Novel is a company, and any company’s primary goal is to make money. Microsoft gave Novel money, and then attempted to set fire to Novel’s product.
I repeat again: the patent deal Microsoft paid Novel to agree to has very little to do with patents. Novel may have been naive (perhaps conveniently so), but the real betrayer, the real backstabber is clear.
Novel says they accepted the deal because peace is better, and less costly. Then Microsoft said “See, Novel has joined our side of the war and agrees that you all owe us. Now who else will join us?”
Novel: “Wait. What?”
There, I hope that clears it up for you. The issue being discussed is whether Novel was stupidly naïve, or selling Linux out with a promise of exclusion form the subsequent damage.