[mdlug] [WLUG] Ballmer: Use Suse Linux or else!

[Joe Landman]

Retraction:  I finally read Ballmer's comments.  I am disappointed.
Badly.  He is rattling the IP sword, spreading the FUD, and offering a
shield.  Exactly like SCO.

Ok, will start migrating new systems (and my laptop) over the next few
months.  Happily Ubuntu 6.10 appears to be an excellent distribution.

Call it a mea culpa.  I was wrong; they really do want to line up the
penguins to make them easier to get rid of.

Joe

Joe Landman wrote:
> R P Herrold wrote:
>> On Fri, 17 Nov 2006, Rob Seward wrote:
>>
>>> The Microsoft / Novell relationship will be interesting to observe
>>> over the next decade.
>>
>> There may still be an entity called Novell, just as there is still an
>> entity using the SCO name .... but Novell is the walking undead; 
> 
> I am not sure I agree with the last part of this ...
> 
>> destined to continuing to be sold off one part at a time -- they spun
>> off their consulting practice last year; they have a few pieces and 
> 
> This is true, and in large part because Novell still has not wrapped
> their mind around what it takes to be successful in this market.  It is
> hard.  Value that people are willing to pay for is elusive (for example:
> anyone here willing to pay for a distribution, or the services behind
> this?)
> 
>> parts of some value; they have a patent portfolio; and (of yes) they 
> 
> Yes.  Patents don't guarantee success.  Usually they put you into a
> defensive mode.  Paraphrasing someone else, winning in a market is not
> done by defensive tactics.
> 
>> have succeeded in running SuSE into the ground as a credible place to
>> expend FOSS development effort.
> 
> Hmmm....  Again, I am not sure I agree with this.
> 
> FWIW: we use SuSE when our customers request it.  We also use Centos 4.4
> (thanks Russ!), and several others.  I like what I have seen in Ubuntu
> 6.10, though I don't understand the boot process well enough to monkey
> with it.  I have played with rPath, and while it has some high points,
> its package system is IMO a complete unbridled mess.  Makes RPM look
> good (and I have serious issues with RPM... it may simply be the best of
> a bad lot, and I know Russ probably strongly disagrees with this).  SuSE
> RPM is hideously broken. Building cross platform tools has been getting
> harder and harder.
> 
> At the end of the day, Linux is largely Linux, and while I think the
> implicit recognition of Linux is good on behalf of MSFT, I think they
> have managed to shoot themselves in the foot (again) they way they went
> about it.  Dovetails with their execs new directions and tactics and
> what I saw at SC06.
> 
> Look, SCO is toast.  Their claims were/are weak, and it looks like they
> managed to get lots of folks to take the long knives out of their
> sheaths.  I don't expect them to exist as an entity within two years of
> this date, and one year may be more likely.
> 
> Novell signed a deal that provides a "modicum" of protection against IP
> suit.  Unfortunately the wording is somewhat noxious, and the first few
> challenges will likely force clarification.  I do not believe that there
> is IP that they need to worry about in their distro, though I could be
> wrong, and I am not a lawyer (like others on this list).
> 
> Novell is also bleeding market share and mind share to Redhat, and has
> been for a while. Linux is Linux, but getting ISV support, endorsements,
> etc going correctly is not something they do well, and RH does.  Of
> course the technical side is that most of the large/complex/hard
> machines that I am aware of are not running RH, but SuSE (first).  RH
> comes much later on when their kernel (backported monstrosity) finally
> adds needed support (SATA anyone?).
> 
> This may be a rational business decision for them.  It doesnt enamor me
> more to them or push me away from them.  I take a wait and see approach.
>  If MSFT goes all out and buys them, and offers SuSE as MSFT linux,
> guess what we will wind up with at lots of corporate sites.  If I was
> betting on this I would put this at something greater than 50% odds
> right now.
> 
>>
>> My $0.02
>>
>> -- Russ Herrold
>> -- 
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> 

-- 
Joseph Landman, Ph.D
Founder and CEO
Scalable Informatics LLC,
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