On Mon, 2003-08-04 at 12:12, Rick Warner wrote: > On Mon, 2003-08-04 at 11:55, Matthias Saou wrote: > > > > > There is a huge difference between supporting GNU/Linux products and > > supporting free software... IMHO Red Hat and IBM are respectful towards and > > contribute a lot to free software, but company like Oracle definitely > > don't. As for Novell, I can't say, but I hope... time will tell. > > > > Matthias > > Sheesh, go back to your history books, folks. Long ago and far away > Novell was working on a unified network desktop platform to compete > with Windows. A change in CEO happened and Novell decided to try the > 'we can be friends' approach with Microsoft. The group that had been > working on the desktop platform left and founded ... Caldera (now SCO). > Novell let those folks take the work they had done at Novell and > some of that got contributed back as OSS in dosemu and all the netware > compatibility stuff. Novell could have claimed ownership and deep-sixed > that code, but let it go without a fight. Interesting that a change in > management at Caldera (now SCO) has made them the ones unfriendly to > OSS. I was just about to write the same thing. Novell was actually an early adopter of Linux (around kernel 1.2?) and has quietly contributed a fairly large heap of code. While contributing stuff that mostly enables Netware interoperability can be seen as self-serving, the fact that they open-sourced it (rather than hoarding it for say, 'Novell Linux') should say something. Anyway, they might not be friends, but they certainly aren't the enemy either. Also, consider the push Novell could give Linux into the enterprise. And I'm not referring to the server room. Novell's ability to remotely manage desktops would give Linux a big boost in that area. Novell's purchase of Ximian (a desktop-oriented company) certainly bolsters that theory. It's a win-win situation: Ximian gets lots of funding, Novell can (eventually) cut back R&D dollars on that keerap thing they call a NOS, and Linux gets enterprise-level management tools. Regards, -- Cliff Wells, Software Engineer Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net) (503) 978-6726 (800) 735-0555 -- Shrike-list mailing list Shrike-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/shrike-list
