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Robert Love Resigns from Novell
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Fri May 04, 2007 06:45 PM
from the moving-on dept.
from the moving-on dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Robert Love who was the Chief Architect of Novell's Linux Desktop has resigned today. Robert is a prominent Linux kernel hacker, author and journalist in the Linux community.
His blog doesn't specify why he resigned, but after colleague and friend Jeremy Allison's departure from Novell in protest of the Microsoft-Novell deal, this might be the latest fallout from it."
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Speculation is Lame (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://wgz.org/chromatic/)
The speculation in the submission is unnecessary. Regardless of my personal feelings about the Novell-Microsoft deal, this looks like an opportunistic attempt to re-open an old debate. That's not fair to anyone actually involved.
Re:Speculation is Lame (Score:5, Funny)
(http://insidewoodland.com/)
I really wish there were more people like this in our industry. That would attract women.
And women have boobies.
Re:Speculation is Lame (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:Speculation is Lame (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~panaceaa | Last Journal: Friday July 14 2006, @09:19PM)
The FAQ on the Novell/Microsoft deal is filled with business doublespeak, but one sentence of it strikes me: "Novell will continue to promote Linux as the premier platform for core infrastructure and application services." It strikes me because it is the only sentence stating what Novell will continue doing after the agreements. It's a feel good sentence, sounding like "oh, Novell's continuing Linux development," but really explicitly stating the parts of Linux it will continue on. Considering that Novell was actively developing the Linux Desktop, and Robert Love was "Chief Architect, Linux Desktop, at Novell" [wikipedia.org], it's apparent that the Linux Desktop is one of the items Novell will NOT continue.
Speculation is natural, but fruitless (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://perens.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday February 07 2006, @08:49PM)
When Jeremy Allison resigned from Novell, the fact of his resignation was known by the public for some weeks before his last official day as a Novell employee. Jeremy had to refrain from doing or saying certain things until he was actually off the payroll - for example he did not sign the petition [techp.org] until then. Love is probably in the same situation right now: known to have resigned, but still to some degree responsible to the company.
We might not get to know how Love feels about the Novell-Microsoft agreement for some time, and should not make assumptions. It may well be that his strongest feelings are about wanting to continue to develop a great desktop, and that Novell might not be such a great place to do that any longer. That's all he mentioned in his blog.
That said, the agreement is a big honkin' elephant in Novell's living room that is not going away. It's unfair to ask people not to speculate, we just have to make it clear that such speculations are vapors until Love himself comments.
Bruce
On one hand ... (Score:1, Interesting)
(http://www.animal-assist.org/donate.html)
On the other hand this is another nail in Novell's coffin as they suffer through being possessed by Microsoft.
...maybe NOW Novell will pay attention? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday March 26 2004, @02:46PM)
I can grok the 'foot-in-the-door' theory of getting enough interoperability w/ Windows to make Windows no longer matter (or at least ease customers out of the Windows-only lock-in), but man... he HAD to have seen the 'Plays for Sure' fiasco and figure out that the only real winner in any MSFT-3rdparty deal is MSFT, even if MSFT has to screw the partner(s) to do it.
Re:...maybe NOW Novell will pay attention? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.imagicity.com/)
In signing this deal with Microsoft, Novell (note spelling) has deliberately and disingenuously circumvented one of the key elements that ensures the continuity of the GNU General Public License, version 2. The GPL states that you cannot encumber the license with additional terms (patent limitations, for example), because that would work against the the principle of the FSF's four freedoms: to study, copy, modify and redistribute software.
Novell inked a deal with Microsoft that did an end-run around this limitation by agreeing not to sue Novell's customers for patent infringement. This makes a scenario possible in which an unsuspecting company or individual could use GPL software, assuming that they had every right to do so, only to have Microsoft sue them later for breach of patent. As long as they're not Novell customers, MS would be perfectly within their rights to do so.
It stretches belief to imagine that Microsoft didn't know they were subverting the essence - if not the letter - of the GPL with this deal. But we've known for years now that Microsoft sees the GPL as a threat, and that they are working actively to defeat it using both fair means and foul.
What gets people's knickers in a knot over this deal is the fact that Novell should have known better. They built a major part of their business strategy on the hard work of the FOSS community, and contributed a lot to it, too. But now they've gone and exploited an inherent weakness in the current version of the GPL, and damaged FOSS in general for short-sighted, selfish reasons. In effect, they're poisoning the very well they drink from.
Needless to say, a great many people in the FOSS world, including RMS, Bruce Perens and a lot of others who know a thing or two about this stuff, have castigated Novell for being remarkably stupid. And a lot of us here on Slashdot agree.
Re:...maybe NOW Novell will pay attention? (Score:5, Interesting)
No Love for Novell? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I guess when people say there is no love for Novell, they mean there is no Love for Novell.
Next week's headline? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.theneb.co.uk/)
Thank You (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.enderandrew.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday July 03, @11:44PM)
While everyone grips about Novell-MS, let me instead say thank you.
Thank you for all your contributions, paid for or otherwise, we all benefit from them, often at no cost to ourselves.
I wish you the best in future endeavors.
Re:Thank You (Score:4, Insightful)
Reminiscent of Compaq/HP Merger (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://latedeveloper.org.uk/)
Similarly, if all the Linux hackers leave Novell/SUSE, who exactly are Novell going to employ to develop the distribution? Not many people looking to make a good career move are going to man a ship whose crew says she's sinking.
Robert Love Resigns from Novell... (Score:1)
(http://www.myspace.com/timetracker)
Screw You Guys... (Score:1, Funny)
(http://www.dbmi.columbia.edu/~cop7001/)
Blame IBM (Score:1)
Tadaa (Score:1, Funny)
Speculation, false. (Score:5, Informative)
(http://rlove.org/)
The MSFT/NOVL agreement was not the motivation behind my departure.
I appreciate the postings by those who recognize that the speculation behind my departure is ill-founded and inappropriate.
Re:Speculation, false. (Score:4, Interesting)
In that case, would you mind ending the speculation by simply telling us the reason (if it was business-related; otherwise just tell us "it's private")? Curious minds want to know...
maybe Miguel de Icaca wants the job/title (Score:2)
LoB
... and joins... (Score:1)
(http://dlymper.blogspot.com/)
Re:It could have been Mormonism (Score:2)
It is true that presidential candidate W. Mitt Romney has built a Mormon Temple (the only one northeast of Maryland; a temple is much bigger than a normal church) near his house in Belmont, a town adjacent to Waltham. But other than Mitt and his many kids, there aren't a lot of Mormons near Novell HQ.
Eh???? (Score:1, Troll)
(Last Journal: Friday December 01 2006, @10:51AM)