[NTLUG:Discuss] red hat server revisited

[Michael]

> You don't consider Gentoo a "main trunk"?  Guess it depends on how you
> define "main". :-)

The 'trunk' was the emphasized word .. I was considering a trunk "a develop 
and release back to open source company/organization that was developing on 
the 1.x kernal and is still in business." I've only recently become aware of 
Gentoo, My very limited understanding of Gentoo is the first Gentoo release 
was on the 2.2 or 2.4 kernal, which is fairly high off the ground.   They are 
a main branch maybe, but not the trunk on which linux was built. 

> I've really
> seen no evidence of them saying they want to kill/restrict/whatever Suse's
> products by changing the licensing agreement.  Can you point to a source
> for that?

I wasn't worried about a price license, but about an 'it's all mine' license. 

I'm a cynic with big companies I guess. It's my opinion that Novell has too 
much corporate mass to convert to an open source philosophy. It's much more 
likely that the guys being bought are going to change strategy than the 
purchasers.  The fact this is being announce heavy on the markets, and only 
trickling into linux news feeds slowly is another indicator to me what's 
driving the purchase, and where the future lies. 

Novell has a very large chunk of 'I P' ..  They state in their press release 
theyve been developing for linux since early 2000. I've noted no downloadable 
ISO's on their website.  Don't get me wrong, Novell has every right to pursue 
the american dream of lining their own pockets, more power to them. 

SUSE however, has been a very huge contributor to making all linux distros 
complete operating systems.  Until now, most SUSE developments become linux 
developments and not SUSE patents/copyrights. For example, SuSE was big on 
developing video drivers, and all that work didn't stay SUSE property but 
rolled back into linux in general.  Many of the Xwindows drivers for linux 
were built at SuSE (Ok I'm probably overstating this, but I fought an onboard 
video driver on my 'emachine'  in 1997 and found active development at SuSE, 
and the RAGE IIC driver was available on SUSE first. ) They contributed much 
of their IP back into open source, and considered that good policy.  

SuSE was a huge contributor back into linux in general. I don't see Novell 
making any contributions (but maybe I'm blind.) They say in their press 
release theyve been in the linux game for 3 years already. For me, That's 
long enough to start drawing conclusions. 

These 2 basic strategies are at the core incompatible with each other. Who 
bought who?   Have you read a Novell License agreement lately?  Whatever the 
licensing, I'm not expecting Novell to install any major playground equipment 
in linux, like a major overhaul of RPM, etc.  They are strictly a 'keep the 
toys in my backyard' kind of company, and have been since the 80's.