Mark Shuttleworth Tries To Lure OpenSUSE Devs

polar_bear` writes "A lot of developers are angry at Novell for its deal with Microsoft, but is it fair game for other vendors to try to capitalize on dissatisfaction with Novell? Apparently, Mark Shuttleworth thinks so. Shuttleworth sent an invitation to the openSUSE developers list inviting developers 'concerned about the long term consequences' of Novell's deal to participate in Ubuntu Open Week and consider jumping ship to Ubuntu. OpenSUSE and Ubuntu developers are not amused."

Re:No big deal

[digidave]

A lot of people get paid for it. Many paid Linux developers start by contributing some of their free time, then they are hired by a commercial Linux company. Both Novell and Ubuntu pay many developers. I'm sure Mark is interested in volunteer programmers, but it's also quite possible that he'd hire programmers away from Novell. Don't you think if Miguel de Icaza decided he wanted out of Novell because of this that either Red Hat or Canonical would hire him in an instant?

They forgot to link to...

[Anonymous Coward]

The best part; OpenSuse's satirical response [ubuntu.com] _____________ Kubuntu Edgy User

Re:No big deal

[Schraegstrichpunkt]

I can't believe people do this.

And yet it happens enough to cause projects like Linux, KDE, GNOME, OpenBSD, Apache, and so on, to get off the ground. Get used to it.

Corel/Microsoft & Novell/Microsoft - look deep

[lotusleaf]

Did Microsoft hold secret talks with Novell prior to any public announcement to any agreement?

If so, I would hope openSUSE developers would be more concerned about this, rather than a clearly *open* offer from Shuttleworth. I used SUSE for several years prior to Novell coming into the SUSE picture, before I switched to Ubuntu Linux.

I said it before and I'll say it again, I think Mr. Shuttleworth is brilliant.

Look, if Microsoft wanted to bring Windows and Linux together, why didn't they do it when they partnered with Corel around six years ago? (if, indeed, it was a partnership, correct me if I'm wrong please) Does anyone remember Corel Linux? It, like Ubuntu, was a Debian based Linux distribution, with an easy to use graphical installer! And this was around six years ago! (There was even a Corel Linux for Dummies book, check Amazon dot com and see for yourself) Anyone who wants to gain an enlightened perspective can google about Corel Linux and Microsoft and inform themselves. Here are a few important articles:

"Corel Sells Out To Microsoft" [forbes.com]

"Interview: Corel's Linux VP on the Microsoft deal" [cnn.com] @ CNN 10/16/2000

"Microsoft Faces New Antitrust Probe Over Corel Deal" [washingtonpost.com]

"Government lawyers want to know more about a deal in which Microsoft gave Corel, perhaps best known for its WordPerfect program, $135 million in exchange for 24 million shares of Corel stock last October." "After the investment, Corel announced it would retreat from developing software designed to run on the Linux operating system, which competes with Microsoft's Windows operating system." - quotes source [washingtonpost.com]

"Microsoft Litigation" [groklaw.net] List - Educate yourself

I ask you: Who do YOU trust?

Do you want open meetings and discussions? Isn't that what an open source community thrives on? Or do you want secret meetings?

For those of you who would rather crack chair throwing or developer jokes and ignore the issue, read for yourself in an interview with Bill Gates dated 11/17/2006 where he mentions Novell, indemnification, and the word pioneering all in the same reponse to a question:

"Gates on Vista, Linux and more" [com.com]

History repeats itself, and I believe, in my opinion, we're seeing it happen right now. IMO the Corel/Microsoft events in history should not be ignored. In fact, I suggest they be looked at again closely and compared to the present Novell/Microsoft events for educational purposes. :) Google for yourself and see, there are a lot of juicy articles out there on this. And yes, I know about Xandros, my point is about where Corel Linux was headed.

Re:I wonder...

[bl8n8r]

There's more at stake with the Patent Agreement than just some money changing hands. From what I understand, under the MS/Novell agreement, there would be a potential opportunity for maliciously inserting copyrighted material into the codebase of whatever OSS projects Novell is working on. The codebase could find it's way into other projects too, creating an unintentional derived work off proprietary code. This is why everyone is getting so pissy about the whole thing. There's an Open Letter to Novell on Bruce Peren's website filled with a bunch of sigs of people telling Novell they want nothing to do with them because of this. I posted this link in another comment yesterday. I'm not affiliated, I just think it's worth knowing about, and signing if it suits you. http://techp.org/petition/show/1 [techp.org]

Re:Your Bad Call was...

[mushadv]

Ubuntu is sort of close... but by refusing to have anything proprietary it will never "just work" because graphics drivers and such aren't free as in beer yet.

Ubuntu 7.04 will have proprietary drivers installed by default to make way for AIGLX and Compiz or Beryl. And they are free as in beer, but they're not free as in speech.

There's a pretty big controversy a-brewin' at the wiki [ubuntu.com] about the decision, but I think it's justified. Some compromises have to be made in order to survive a proprietary world, and it's still primarily free software. I don't want Ubuntu to be left behind as the last major OS without a compositing window manager after Vista launches. What really concerns me is how this'll go over after the Kororaa controversy.

Re:What's the problem?

[xenocide2]

It was kinda tacky to insinuate that they weren't dedicated to Free software any more, and such. If Mark felt there were individual developers dissatisfied with Novell's recent activities, it would have been smarter to target them personally rather than post on the openSUSE mailing list to promote Ubuntu.

Re:GNOME is funded by *everybody*

[Mad Merlin]

Yes, it's unfortunate that many of the more common distros are shipping Gnome as the default DE now. I think this is due to the perception that Gnome is "simpler" and thus more suitable for the "average" user. Even Kubuntu completely lobotomizes the default KDE install by removing the majority of entries from the K menu, replacing the control center with a dumbed down version, etc.

Despite the number of distros shipping with Gnome as the default DE, polls suggest [linuxquestions.org] that KDE is still the most used DE, for now anyways. I suspect we'll see Gnome absorb many users migrating from Windows, but I don't see many KDE users changing over to Gnome.

Re:Why (Re:Microsoft developer community?)

[Anonymous Coward]

Why isn't that WPA information on the ubuntu website?

You mean like this?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowT o [ubuntu.com]

Heavens, no. No documentation anywhere.