Samba Team Asks Novell to Reconsider
Monday, November 13, 2006
The Samba Team strongy dissaproves of the actions taken by Novell on November 2nd in their dealings with Microsoft, and have posted their thoughts on the matter:The Samba Team disapproves strongly of the actions taken by Novell on November 2nd.
One of the fundamental differences between the proprietary software world and the free software world is that the proprietary software world divides users by forcing them to agree to coercive licensing agreements which restrict their rights to share with each other, whereas the free software world encourages users to unite and share the benefits of the software.
The patent agreement struck between Novell and Microsoft is a divisive agreement. It deals with users and creators of free software differently depending on their "commercial" versus "non-commercial" status, and deals with them differently depending on whether they obtained their free software directly from Novell or from someone else.
The goals of the Free Software community and the GNU GPL allow for no such distinctions.
Furthermore, the GPL makes it clear that all distributors of GPL'd software must stand together in the fight against software patents. Only by standing together do we stand a chance of defending against the peril represented by software patents. With this agreement Novell is attempting to destroy that unified defense, exchanging the long term interests of the entire Free Software community for a short term advantage for Novell over their competitors.
For Novell to make this deal shows a profound disregard for the relationship that they have with the Free Software community. We are, in essence, their suppliers, and Novell should know that they have no right to make self serving deals on behalf of others which run contrary to the goals and ideals of the Free Software community.
Using patents as competitive tools in the free software world is not acceptable. Novell, as a participant in numerous debates, discussions and conferences on the topic knew this to be the case. We call upon Novell to work with the Software Freedom Law Center to undo the patent agreement and acknowledge its obligations as a beneficiary of the Free Software community.
Well, the Samba team definitely makes a good point. I guess Novell really has betrayed the Open Source Software community. Upon first glance, I was quite optimistic about the Novell - Microsoft deal, but now... I don't know. "For Novell to make this deal shows a profound disregard for the relationship that they have with the Free Software community." This statement hits particularly hard, I wonder how Novell will react. If you have ever read my blog before, you will know that I am a huge fan and supporter of SUSE (openSUSE) Linux. It is my favorite distro by far as of this point, I really hope Novell can clear up some of this stuff. Last thing that I want on my computer is a Linux distro closely related to Microsoft. Plain Windows... well that is a different story, but I think Microsoft has no right to anything Linux related. I've read about how most things Microsoft partners with eventually fail... I don't want that to happen to SUSE... well, post your opinions on the matter, and lets see how this develops.
