MESSAGE
| DATE | 2010-11-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Novell acquired by Attachmate, sells some
|
On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 04:43:57PM -0500, 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.
>
That wasn't what screwed them up. What screwed them up was their
complete lack of understanding of the power of the Linux desktop and how
to build verticle markets, something Apple figured out in a halfassed
way.
They never understood what a networked desktop with X11 meant and how
far advanced it was compared to what was available. All they could
think of was slapping their propreitary crap onto the desktop for access
control with Xen works..
And god forbid they create and invest in a verticle market!
> 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.
That was like giving Heronin to a dope fiend.
> 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.
Lets not hope this isn't bad news. This one one thing Novell actually
understood and protected.
> 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
OYE!!
> 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.
>
We'll see.
It is a little lates with the dieing desktop ...
> "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
|
|
