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Fuzzy Logic Novell’s deal with Microsoft made mostly public
Fuzzy Logic Novell’s deal with Microsoft made mostly public | Novell’s deal with Microsoft made mostly public |
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| Written by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Sunday, 27 May 2007 | |
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They add some detail to what was already explained when the deal was originally announced late last year, keeping some information confidential with ***'s, and explained in full what the consequences of an unfavorable GPLv3 might mean to the company. We already know that the deal is for five years, and sees Microsoft spending US$240 million on Suse Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates, a lot of money on marketing and a lot of money of making sure server and other software works with Novell’s, while Novell is to pay Microsoft a percentage of revenue from open source products. As you’d expect, people are pouring through the documents with a fine tooth comb to see what they can find within. One discovery is Microsoft not including certain programs from patent exemption, including OpenOffice, Star Office, WINE and Open-Xchange which were listed by name. Another is Novell’s concern that the GPLv3 ends up being written in a way that could see Microsoft cease distribution of Suse Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates, which would materially affect Novell’s business. This is especially obvious given that US $70m of revenue from last quarter’s revenues of US $91m came from Microsoft selling Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Server products to their Windows customers, all of whom decided to go further into Linux through Novell’s Suse specifically because of the deal that Novell and Microsoft brought to life late last year. And as Novell has stated especially since Microsoft’s claims of patent violations in Linux and open-source software, Novell says in section 3.4 of their agreement that “Nothing in this Agreement shall imply, or be construed as an admission or acknowledgement by a Party, that any Patents of the other Party are infringed, valid or enforceable.” But worries about GPLv3 for Novell remain, as seen on page 18 of the 144-page 10K filing, although previous comments by Novell’s Director of Marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions, Justin Steinman, on the GPLv3 suggest a degree of confidence that things will go their way. In an earlier interview with Steinman on Novell being better than ever since the Microsoft agreement, Steinman answered a question posed by iTWire’s Linux Guru, Sam Varghese, who asked “what Novell plans to do after the GPLv3 comes into force and a lot of software which belongs to the Free Software Foundation is put under that licence making it impossible for Novell to use because of the deal they cut with Microsoft? Novell can use the earlier versions and hire developers to work on them in order to keep up - in other words, run their own forks of a number of projects.”
Steinman's reponse, Novell's stated GPLv3 worries and my conclusion is on the next page, please read on! |
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