MESSAGE
| DATE | 2010-11-22 |
| FROM | Paul Charles Leddy
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Novell acquired by Attachmate, sells some
|
This seriously sucks to have to worry and think about.
On 11/22/10, einker wrote:
> ** Everyone is now officially screwed ! ** Time to find a new distribution
> .....
> Novell acquired by Attachmate, sells some patents to Microsoft
> By Ryan Paul | Last updated
> November
> 22, 2010 2:37 PM
> http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/11/novell-acquired-by-attachmate-sells-some-assets-to-microsoft.ars
>
> When Novell turned down an
> offerto
> be acquired by hedge fund Elliot Associates earlier this year, it
> seemed
> like the Linux vendor was looking for a better deal. The company announced
> today that it has accepted an offer to be acquired for $2.2 billion by
> software company Attachmate. Parallel to the acquisition, Novell has sold
> over 800 patents for $450 million to a consortium of technology companies
> organized by Microsoft.
>
> Novell entered the Linux market in 2003 by acquiring Ximian and SuSE,
> commercial Linux vendors that were rising to prominence at the time. Novell
> used the technology obtained through those acquisitions to build enterprise
> Linux desktop and server platforms that the company brought to market under
> a unified SUSE brand. Novell opened the source code of some core SUSE
> features, such as the YaST configuration system, and attempted to foster an
> independent open source development community around its software.
>
> Although Novell made a considerable investment to build a strong Linux
> product portfolio, the company faced serious difficulties. It couldn't catch
> up with Red Hat's substantial lead in the enterprise server market and was
> never able to build a credible business around its desktop products.
> Novell's desktop strategy was plagued by a general lack of direction and
> suffered from the friction between the GNOME-centric Ximian and KDE-centric
> SUSE developers.
>
> Novell eventually managed to make its Linux business profitable by signing a
> controversial interoperability agreement with Microsoft in 2006. The goal of
> the deal was to boost SUSE's compatibility with proprietary Windows
> protocols in order to make the Linux distribution more appealing to
> companies that use a combination of Linux and Windows software. The
> agreement was extremely unpopular among Linux enthusiasts because it
> included a patent covenant that protected SUSE customers exclusively,
> failing to grant protection to downstream code recipients—a characteristic
> that is deeply hostile to open source licensing.
>
> The deal with Microsoft proved to be profitable in the short term, but
> wasn't enough to make Novell a truly competitive force in the enterprise
> software market. Novell has gradually shifted its focus towards development
> tools, cloud computing, and the mobile space.
>
> The company is a significant participant in the MeeGo project and is doing
> an increasingly large portion of the engineering for MeeGo's netbook stack.
> The Mono project—Novell's open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET
> framework—is enjoying some commercial success as a tool for cross-platform
> mobile and embedded
> development.
> The company has also made inroads in the virtualization market with its
> extremely impressive virtual appliance tool, called SUSE
> Studio(this
> led to some speculation of a potential acquisition offer by VMware
> that never materialized).
>
> In addition to the wide range of modern open source technologies in Novell's
> product portfolio, the company also has some extremely valuable legacy IP,
> including some of the original copyrights on the UNIX platform and patents
> that cover fundamental aspects of networking technology and operating
> systems. The UNIX intellectual property was at the center of the litigation
> brought by dying UNIX vendor SCO against the Linux platform. SCO's claims
> that Linux misappropriated UNIX technologies were never evaluated in court
> because it was determined that Novell was actually the rightful owner of the
> intellectual property that was allegedly infringed.
>
> There are some concerns that the case against Linux could be resurrected if
> a hostile third party such as Microsoft were to obtain the UNIX intellectual
> property. Novell's sale today of over 800 patents to a Microsoft-led
> coalition for $450 million alongside the Attachmate deal raises questions
> about whether we could see SCO-like litigation resurrected in the immediate
> future. It's worth noting that no evidence of actual
> infringementwas
> ever found during SCO's misdirected crusade against Linux. In fact,
> internal memos from SCO that were uncovered during the court proceedings
> reveal that the company's own source code audits found no infringement.
>
> The lack of copyright infringement doesn't mean that Linux is immune to
> litigation over UNIX-related patents, however. It's not yet clear exactly
> what patents Microsoft and friends bought for $450 million or how they
> intend to put those patents to use. Although there are still many unanswered
> questions, it seems clear that Attachmate intends to perpetuate Novell's
> Linux business. In a statement issued today, Attachmate CEO Jeff Hawn
> highlighted the value of SUSE and said that his company will continue to
> strengthen the SUSE products.
>
> "This acquisition will add significant assets to our current portfolio
> holdings and the Novell and SUSE brands will allow us to deliver even more
> value to customers," Hawn said in a statement. "We have great respect for
> Novell's business, its employees and its commitment to customers. Moreover,
> we look forward to maintaining and further strengthening Novell and SUSE
> solutions to meet market demands."
>
> Novell has made a number of significant contributions to Linux over the past
> six years and played an important role in helping the platform to mature as
> a desktop and server operating system. The company's failure to achieve
> success on its own is disappointing, though not particularly surprising.
> It's possible that new leadership will put SUSE on a more profitable path,
> but it's not clear whether the company will continue to be a major open
> source software contributor after the acquisition is complete.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Evan M. Inker
>
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