[NBLUG/talk] Novell to own SuSE

[Steve Smith]

This goes along with
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5101690.html.

It makes perfect sense.  Redhat is after the server market
and corprate money, not the mass user base.  I wonder how
this all fits the GPL though...

I thought I was safe from this with SuSE, but maybe not.
Maybe it's time to spin off GeekLinux or something, and in a
way, I guess that's what Mandrake is, right (speaking from a
state of perfect ignorance of course).

All i can say is DANG!

Steve S.

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, Kyle Rankin wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 10:32:47AM -0800, Dustin Mollo wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 10:21:29AM -0800, E Frank Ball wrote:
> > > On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 01:08:14PM -0500, Bob Blick wrote:
> > > } After yesterday's RedHat/Fedora announcement, this one really makes me
> > > } wish it were April 1st, but it appears to be true:
> > > } http://www.suse.com/us/company/press/press_releases/archive03/novell_suse.html
> > > } Debian, here I come!
> > >
> > > RedHat Enterprise License terms
> > > http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us_3.html
> > >
> > > It isn't pretty.  A couple quotes:
> >
> > even more disturbing, imho (comments to follow...):
> >
> [snip disturbing legalese]
> >
> > what this basically means to me (WARNING: i'm not a lawyer), is that you
> > *can't* install the product (RHEL AS/ES/WS 3) on multiple machines.  someone
> > posted on slashdot that you *can* install it on multiple machines if you
> > decline the support agreement...which means you can not download *any*
> > errata updates, with the exception of the SRPMS made available publically on
> > their ftp site.
> >
> > -dustin
>
> It sounds to me like RedHat will find out fairly quickly what Microsoft has
> found out from time to time -- that geeks do read these licensing agreements
> sometimes, and that you can only go so far with intruding on a person's
> place of business, before they start shopping elsewhere.
>
> At least with Linux, switching vendors isn't nearly as painful as with a
> Windows or Apple migration.
>
> I'm just wondering how Novell/SUSE will modify their licensing (if at all)
> in response.
>
> --
> Kyle Rankin
> NBLUG President
> The North Bay Linux Users Group
> http://nblug.org
> IRC: greenfly at irc.freenode.net #nblug
> kyle at nblug.org
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