[SLL] Save Novell!

[Russell Evans]

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 06:51:20 -0700
"Francois Caen" <frcaen at gmail.com> wrote:

> I just realized something:
> Novell has a $15M/qtr Linux business.
> RH is a $111M/qtr company that does just Linux.
> 
> That means that RH is about 10 times the Linux company that Novell is.
> 
> Hum...

Something new to think about

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6188254.html
	Microsoft and Linux distributor Xandros announced on Monday 
	a technical and legal collaboration, the latest step in the 
	software giant's ongoing program to partner with open-source 
	companies.

	Over the next five years, the two companies said, they will
	work on improving interoperability between their servers to 
	improve systems management.

	The pact calls for Microsoft to provide patent covenants for 
	Xandros customers that ensure they are not infringing on 
	Microsoft's intellectual property, according to the companies.


As a Debian based distribution, I can see this causing some issues in the community. Debian has to be the most ideological and closest to "Free" as any distribution can be. 

I don't understand licensing, but I would think that Debian maintainer patches could be gpl v3ed very quickly, quickly verses all the projects that make up a distribution moving to gpl v3 at the project level. I also think most packages in Debian are patched by/for Debian, part of the reason it takes so long for a new Debian version to come out, so this possible would be effective in killing the deal. I don't know, maybe you can't mix the licenses this way?

Maybe this will just push most projects to adopt gpl v3? Interesting times we live in.


Thank you
Russell