[mdlug] Ballmer: Use Suse Linux or else!

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Michael Corral

> In a new twist, Mark Shuttleworth (the millionaire "self-appointed
> benevolent dictator for life" of Ubuntu, and CEO of Canonical) sent
> an open letter to the OpenSuse mailing list trying to lure their
> developers to Ubuntu:
> http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg03765.html

 Seems a reasonable thing to do, under the circumstances. After all,
Novell really *has* angered a large number of people with their recent
moves vis-a-vis Microsoft. See, e.g., here:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006112417153768

> The response does do a good job of exposing Shuttleworth's hypocrisy
> about Novell violating the GPL, as the next release of Ubuntu will
> include closed-source "binary blobs" by default, in violation of
> Section 3 of the GPL.

 The actual story is a *bit* more nuanced:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7895189911.html

 I'll also note that Linus (another "benevolent dicatator for life")
has explicitly stated that binary drivers are permitted to be linked
to Linux. (He doesn't *like* them, but he *allows* them.)

http://lwn.net/Articles/159313/

 Oh, and while I have a lot of respect for the GPL (I use it for my
open-source software, after all) I do think the linking proviso is
legally questionable. I'm pretty sure the rest of it is solid, but that
section may not be legally enforceable. In practice, this would mean
that the GPL would be legally equivalent to the LGPL.

> Shuttleworth comes off as a schmuck, IMO.

 MO is different. He was polite and factual, even complimentary in
places. Several of the responses were rather... over the top. Including
the parody.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                                   (313) 227-2317

 There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it
 so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other is to make
   it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. - C.A.R. Hoare
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