our newest Ally ...Microsoft?

[techieMoe]

I have wondered about a fork.

There are certainly enough Linux fans out there that don't like being associated with Microsoft to warrant forking it. (I mean, if GNewSense has a following anything's possible.) I guess the question is are there enough dedicated maintainers willing to do such a fork?

[deanlinkous]

There are certainly enough Linux fans out there that don't like being associated with Microsoft to warrant forking it. (I mean, if GNewSense has a following anything's possible.) I guess the question is are there enough dedicated maintainers willing to do such a fork?

little g please. gNewSense

Actually I would let openSuse do all the work, just strip the necessary parts and mirror the rest and rename it. I wonder how much work that would be?

[techieMoe]

little g please. gNewSense

Actually I would let openSuse do all the work, just strip the necessary parts and mirror the rest and rename it. I wonder how much work that would be?

You might ask the folks at CentOS. I don't know. I think I lost interest in SuSE after SLED 10. We had some good times in their 9.x days (and I'll always have those memories) but I think the old girl has moved on to a new beau and it's best I moved on as well.

[Col. Newman]

or our newest enemy...Novell

What does MS get out of this?

Thats what it looks like, I trust Bill about as far as I can throw his house.

Novell have always been freakish about playing by the book. Even more than SUSE were back in the day. Look at the about turn on non-Free kernel modules.

I think given that Microsoft played catchup (and stole) a few Novell technologies, I think Novell are just a going to play ball this time rather than get screwed over again. I don't think Microsoft have anything to lose here. They get to strengthen one Linux brand over the others, and hence compete more directly, and also as I saw on a few of the geek news sites it could be considered a way to rival Parallels/Bootcamp on OSX. When it comes to Dual Booting Microsoft have nothing to lose.

Last and I think most importantly - Microsoft need to clean their image. They need to hold out their hand. They've already had the legal/antitrust/patent issues. A gesture like this, whether they mean it or not will benefit their 'evil' image.

I want Linux competing against Windows not the other way around.

This Blows

[Farmer Mike]

Between the MS/Novell pact and Oracle looking like they're undermining Red Hat, it seems like divide and conquer tactics.

Another Star Wars reference: "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

I may shelve openSUSE, ignore Oracle and support Red Hat now.
Mike

[ImNeat]

Red Hat going under might undermine Linux as a whole in the corporate world. It may send the message that Linux is somewhat chaotic/risky, and isn't a reliable alternative to something like Windows which has been growing & going strong for years. I personally wouldn't sign any corporate Linux contracts right now if I were running a business.

Novell/Oracle are obviously trying to get ahead of their close competition – but they may be hurting their own foundation in the process.

[deanlinkous]

I cannot imagine redhat EVER going under. They have been around forever in good times and bad. It is a shame they have to take a hit from these crappy companies but they will get back up and keep going.

[eraker]

Did anyone see this article from today:

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4287912423.html

There's an interesting point in here:

What Novell is doing is a smart, short-term move. Novell makes a great Linux, but it's not been making great gains to go with it.

Its investors, for those of you who know more about open-source licenses than business, have been very unhappy. How unhappy? They got the CEO and CFO booted earlier this year.

It appears that they've also been successful in getting Novell to fire some employees. They've been wanting Novell to jettison staffers for over a year now.

On top of that, Novell, like, it seems, every other tech company that was around for the go-go 90s, has to audit how it handled its stock options. That led to the company facing NASDAQ delisting. That's bad news for any company.
...
So, in the short-term, I think Novell will do quite well with the deal, and I'm not just talking about the cool $348 million from Microsoft. They, like all the Linux companies, needed a way to break into Microsoft offices.

[ImNeat]

I cannot imagine redhat EVER going under.

Perhaps you're right, but its stock is falling and I imagine an uphill climb isn't in the near future. I also project declining market share. Who knows though, maybe it has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Did anyone see this article from today:

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4287912423.html

An interesting, but difficult, read. That man loves commas!

I agree this could be a smart short-term move, but right now I can't help but think that all this activity is hurting the Linux base. In my opinion corporate Linux looks weak right now.

[eraker]

This may sound naive to some, but corporate Linux has always looked weak to me. I don't understand (and I'm certainly not in the industry, so I am in this way definitely naive) how a working business model can be effectively developed around something that is given away for free. Personally, I like the community model, and it certainly seems to work well enough, so I don't think it's necessarily the end of the world if the corporate model doesn't work. But maybe I'm just missing something.

What kinds of profitable business models work for Linux corporations? Does Red Hat make money and how do they do it?