Exploring the reality behind exclusionary deals with Microsoft and their subtle (yet severe) implications
Going back to the days when Novell found itself unable to maintain dominance, Chin Wong has this story to tell.
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Free software companies? Surely, that would a joke
As a gentle reminder, Novell insists that it’s merely a mixed-source company [1, 2, 3, 4], a concept that even Microsoft is trying to adopt for public relations purposes. It’s easy to subscribe to this agenda because opening up 1% of your code (abandonware) and keeping your crown jewels closed is an easy responsibility to live up to. there is also costly dependency which a ‘mixed stack’ leads to. It’s a total ‘bastardisation’ of the original goals of Free software because to a large degree it involves exploitation of Free software, e.g. the ‘Google way’ a.k.a. free-riding. with minimal returns compared to the available capacity (Google makes billions of dollars).
When companies like Nokia and Microsoft pretend to be contributing [1, 2], then surely it’s nothing like Novell. The truth is that Novell does contribute some code; some fairly valuable code, too.
Nevertheless, why isn’t Novell assisting the Utah Open Source Conference? That’s where much of Novell is located. The following scoop is an eye-opening change.
…we’re going to have the UTOSC 2008 (Utah Open Source Conference, August 28-30, 2008) at the Salt Lake Community College, Redwood Road campus.
And Novell is not one of their sponsors!
I suppose this is not because Novell is not really caring about open source at all, right?
Recall what we’ve stressed many times over the past week or so (because of Xandros [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]): Novell is the next Corel. It’s losing its focus due to the deal with Microsoft.
Looking into the past, consider this new and excellent article:
Where Xandros is sold in a box, Ubuntu is given away free. Where Ubuntu is seen to donate code back to the community, Xandros and Linspire have developed proprietary extensions. Where Ubuntu asks for manufacturers to free their drivers, Xandros and Linspire have signed patent covenants with Microsoft.
Then there’s SLED/SLES, and OpenSUSE which you can only use ’safely’ provided that you don’t make money from it.
The article also contains an interesting history lesson on Corel. Is this Novell’s vocation?
Cowpland, and Corel, may have made the classic mistake of realising too early where the market was going, and running before the market could walk. Within months Cowpland was forced to step down from the company he had founded, vowing to devote his time to working with unspecified Linux start-ups. “Personally, I intend to get my hands really dirty with a lot of Linux technology,” he told reporters. “I’m fascinated by the potential that’s now emerging.”
He was replaced as CEO by Corel’s chief technology officer, Derek Burney. “Open-source software isn’t a moneymaker”, said Burney, “Microsoft’s .Net strategy will change computing as we know it.”
By this time, Microsoft, which had an interest in keeping WordPerfect afloat for antitrust reasons, had invested $135 million in Corel. According to Burney: “There is a contract that says we have to put the .Net framework into our major applications within six months of the release of .Net.”
Shortly thereafter, Corel divested itself of its Linux distribution, and discontinued support for WordPerfect and CorelDraw on Linux. It has been assumed by many that this was an unwritten condition of Microsoft’s investment in Corel.
In August 2001, Xandros Incorporated announced that it had secured the rights to Corel’s Linux distribution and a US$10 million investment from Linux Global Partners, a Venture Capital firm. Like Corel, Xandros has its roots in Ottawa, Canada, and retained the majority of Corel’s original Linux software development team. Linux Global Partners also invested heavily in other Linux companies, the best known of which are probably CodeWeavers and Ximian (before it was sold to Novell).
[…]
The biggest problem for Xandros and Linspire has been the “patent covenants” that both companies signed with Microsoft, and the detrimental effect that these agreements have had on ongoing relationships with the Linux user and developer communities.
Jeremy Allison of Samba made the point when he resigned from Novell over the same issue. “Whilst the Microsoft patent agreement is in place there is nothing we can do to fix community relations. And I really mean nothing,” he wrote. “Until the patent provision is revoked, we are pariahs…. Unfortunately the time I am willing to wait for this agreement to be changed… has passed, and so I must say goodbye.”
[…]
To which, Alan Cox, the best known of Linux kernel developers after Linus Torvalds, replied: “That would be because we believe in Free Software and doing the right thing (a practice you appear to have given up on). Maybe it is time the term ‘open source’ also did the decent thing and died out with you.”
Can you see what happened to Corel? Two-way assimilation (Microsoft to open [1, 2], and open to the Microsoft API). Good luck to Novell and .Net Mono. The major news at the moment is about GNOME 3.0 (version number bump from 2.3). Miguel de Icaza once said that GNOME 4.0 would be based on .Net. A recent appointment makes the mind boggle a bit [1, 2]. Mono is already there. █
“We will do some buying of companies that are built around open-source products.”
–Steve Ballmer
t was less than a day ago that we explained what had probably happened with VMWare. The story is similar to that of XenSource, which we have painted endlessly before as a victim of Microsoft and its ecosystem. It’s all about platforms, not virtualisation technologies, which Microsoft merely uses to defend its crown jewels. Virtualisation caught Microsoft asleep on the wheel and when it woke up it seemed too late. it has no choice but to play dirty to catch up.
Anyway, shortly after the grabbing of XenSource, Citrix and Microsoft celebrated with a big trophy. Citrix became Microsoft’s Partner of the Year. Now comes a vanity site which is similar to that of Microsoft and Novell.
magnify360 Brings Personalization to Citrix-Microsoft Website, OneGreatPartner.com
magnify360 (www.magnify360.com), the leading provider of 1-to-1 personalization technology, has been tapped to build OneGreatPartner.com, a Citrix community site for premier partner, Microsoft.
This orgy of influence and assets is part of Microsoft’s attempts to turn rivals into partners. With so many Linux companies and much GNU/Linux affinity out there, it’s hard to compete. If Microsoft could change the positions of its opponents, e.g. have VMWare favour Windows over GNU/Linux, then it gains great traction. Novell is another such example, not to mention Corel, XenSource, and even Xandros, which helps with OOXML. Turbolinux too showed off its love for Microsoft. Watch this video of Apple. It’s quite an eye opener. █
“Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand.”
–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO
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Corel has been a very bizarre company ever since its deal with Microsoft. Ambivalent, confused, aimless and reliant on other companies. That’s Corel.
It’s almost like Novell, only several years further down the line. The GNU/Linux identity of Corel is absolutely lost by now. As for Novell, that loss of identity is still ‘work in progress’.
Corel produces software only for Windows. It’s still proprietary, just as Microsoft et al prefer for it to be (Fernando Cassia calls it a mistake). Corel was among the first parties to declare support for OOXML. It was a big deal at the time. Here is the latest from yesterday’s news:
Once ousted from the desktop by Microsoft, Wordperfect is back and better
One of the first widely-used office suites on PCs was Wordperfect. Then Microsoft muscled into the game and quickly its Office suite became the de-facto standard, edging out competitors.
[…]
WPO X4 includes a range of PDF capabilities including the ability to import, edit and export PDF documents - including scanned PDFs.
WPO X4 is distributed in South Africa by Workgroup. Corel product manager at Workgroup, Kevin George, says that as well as offering good PDF support, WPO X4 is also compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 files as well as Open Document Format (ODF), used by OpenOffice.org.
More interesting perhaps is Corel’s ‘bastard child’ called Xandros. Apart from signing a software patent deal with Microsoft, it has been up to other deals and ITJungle summarises.
The commercial Linux distribution business just got a little bit less diverse but perhaps a little stronger while IT Jungle was off on holiday last week when New York-based Xandros acquired fellow Linux distro Linspire for an undisclosed sum.
[…]
Xandros, you will remember, is the company that was founded in the wake of graphics and office automation software maker Corel’s attempt to become a Linux distributor a decade ago, which it spun out in 2001 as a separate entity. Xandros has attempted to create a Debian Linux that plays nicely with Windows and has some of the same look and feel of Windows, to which the company created its own Xandros File Manager to make something that works like the File Manager in Windows. Most recently, Xandros has become famous as the supplier of the Linux embedded in the popular ASUS Eee PC, a tiny little flash-based laptop PC. (I got my wife one of these for Mother’s Day, and she adores it because she can lug it around everywhere since it is no larger than a hardcover book. Which she also lugs around, now that I think about it.) Just as Xandros was cooking up the second edition of its Xandros Server variant last summer, it acquired Scalix, the HP-UX OpenMail groupware program that was spun out of Hewlett-Packard, ported to Linux, and open sourced.
This brings us back to H-P again, and particularly its attitude towards patents. We’ve covered this before. H-P fights for its patents and, not surprisingly, it’s apathetic towards GNU/Linux. If it’s ever offered as a choice, then it’s taxed by Microsoft [1, 2].
Scalix too plays the software patents game with Microsoft (it has roots in Microsoft’s friend, Hewlett-Packard). It joined Xandros shortly after Microsoft and Xandros had signed that horrible deal. And lastly, speaking of H-P, recall what we wrote about GNOME the other day (further comments here) and remember that H-P and Xandros support Microsoft OOXML. To repeat this yet again, the concern here is that Microsoft tries to lock down the core of Free software inside Software Patent Prison, rendering it non-Free. To extent, this has already happened. █
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No more than there will be a GNU/Linux under the Microsoft-reformed Corel
Let’s set the record straight. Linspire is over. The way it was finished is an embellishment. They call it an acquisition [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], but with a sale of all assets, it’s more like a liquidation. Wishful thinkers realise that Freespire won’t be buried overnight. Well, the same goes for Windows XP, right? But does that mean that Windows XP will make a comeback? It’s a rhetorical question.
If you look at what Robertson had to say. you soon understand that he no longer has interest in Linspire. He has no high hopes for it (well, the GPLv3’s punishment for Linspire makes this deserved and inevitable).
There are those who disagree and there will probably be a vocal confrontation or legal battle, but this does not change the fate of a distribution that aligned with Microsoft’s interests and then used its position to threaten Free software.
As often is the case, VAR Guy just doesn’t get it. He is one of those who write about GNU/Linux but don’t really use it.
Goodbye, Linspire (at least as a standalone company). And thank you to Xandros for funding a market consolidation that’s badly needed. The VAR Guy applauds customer choice and open source.
This is actually a follow-up to the latest anti-choice folly, which began with a mindless ramble from Mac elitist Matt Asay. They really don’t understand or accept Free software and they are kicking a dead horse again. As for the latter, he continues to show his disdain or hatred for Linux on the desktop (another new example) and even for Richard Stallman (he has done this for years). █
Addendum: Aside from previous coverage of this closure [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], see what Sam Dean writes: “Did Linspire sell to Xandros out of frustration with trying to promote desktop Linux?” He points to this article. It was either that or closing down then. Here is why Xandros will merely inherit Linspire’s problems (too negatives don’t make a positive).
The Xandros OS is a horrible show of what Linux could do, it actually makes peopel turn away and choose the nicer-looking XP, even though everyone knows Linux could look and perform much better. Putting this aside, I think that a merged distro would be in order to challenge the other major distributions and finally secure a good place for Xandros + Linspire in the top 5. Is it doable? I don’t know. But if they don’t do something real fast, the others are going to run them over and everybody will forget Xandros or Linspire ever existed…
For almost a year, the fate of Linspire has been gloomy. CNR is GPL-licensed, so the passing of assets will mean almost nothing. In reality, it’s almost as though the president shut down and made it look nicer (the ‘takeover’ spin).
“Linspire was a patent deal nuisance just like Xandros and it loses access to GPLv3-ed software (no grandfathering).”Linspire was a patent deal nuisance just like Xandros and it loses access to GPLv3-ed software (no grandfathering). None of these two will be missed and, over time, Novell becomes more of a Microsoft subsidiary whose role is to stomp on players like Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Red Hat. They do this using paid-for protocols, virtualisation, partners like SAP, and FUD. We’ve covered this before.
Avoid all distributions that play the software patents game with Microsoft, namely: Novell, Turbolinux, and Xandros. On top of that, avoid gadgets from LG, Samsung, and Fuji Xerox. █
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It seems safe to say that people have come to grips with the fact that, after its deal with Microsoft, Linspire won’t be quite so visible anymore. It put itself in this downward spiral.
The company changed its name from Lindows, pulled out of an IPO, and then did a licensing deal with Microsoft, much like the ones signed by Xandros and Novell - only Linspire’s was even less popular.
Whoever signed this deal at the time either did not speak to a lawyer or was simply too foolish (and greedy). An internal post mortem could reveal who is responsible for the end of Linspire. At the moment, all that’s left is a legal mess and an abandoned plan [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. CNR is a non-asset despite what the following article tells.
So maybe this is the real value of the Xandros/Linspire deal: a humane package manager, a way to install external software in Linux that doesn’t scare off the uninitiated. I still like the idea of everything-in-the-repository for the sake of consistency, but the more possibilities we have on the table, the better.
CNR is already GPL-licensed though. What’s more, other analogous (and very satisfactory) solutions already exists. Even Kevin Carmony came to realise that Ubuntu, for instance, did not require CNR.
All in all, is seems like this so-called acquisition is just lipstick on a pig. It would be just embarrassing had Linspire shut down rather than sold itself.
Interestingly enough, Xandros might not end here. Pay attention to this.
Londini isn’t ruling out more acquisitions of this sort by Xandros in the near future.
Xandros’ CEO, Andreas Typaldos, has acknowledged that the move forms part of the company’s desire to expand into enterprise markets. “This is part of Xandros’ larger plan and vision for being a full product company to service both the consumer/OEM and enterprise markets,” he said.
Xandros has already acquired (ruined) Scalix, which now pays ‘Microsoft tax’ as well. So although Scalix never signed a deal with Microsoft, the Xandros takeover had a similar effect. They signed a quiet agreement later (’licensing’ protocols).
Companies like Xandros and Novell are a death blow to any FOSS entity they touch. It would be an issue if PlateSpin, for example, was a FOSS company. XenSource, on the oither hand, became a prisoner of Redmond because of Citrix. █
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Nothing extraordinary, but a few minor developments
With Linspire out of the picture [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and with almost zero presence or exposure for Turbolinux in the English-speaking media, we can finally pay more attention to just two companies that signed a software patent deal with their vicious competitor.
Mentioned earlier in the week was this story about GNU/Linux laptops at a school. What we did not share at the time is information about the distribution. Lenovo, being close to IBM, seems to favour SUSE on its laptops and this one situation was no exception.
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It’s back to Free Software, people
“Open source is an intellectual-property destroyer […] I can’t imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business and the intellectual-property business. I’m an American; I believe in the American way, I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don’t think we’ve done enough education of policymakers to understand the threat.”
–Jim Allchin, Microsoft Vice President
ow quickly things change and how shamelessly can an abusive monopolist pretend. Shortly after the Sandcastle fiasco [1, 2], Microsoft becomes an egocentric opportunist once again. It is turning a disgusting case of “Open Source” abuse — some would say “a scandal” — into a publicity stunt and it’s appearing in the form of positive coverage in the media at the moment. It’s essentially advertising the proprietary software-reliant Sandcastle as “open source”. How weaselly.
“Will Microsoft try to play against VMWare using the “open source” buzzword of Xen?”There are other fascinating examples. Earlier today we showed how the technical chief of Xen was becoming a servant of Microsoft under the umbrella of its new Partner of the Year. He was preparing for big announcements. Will Microsoft try to play against VMWare using the “open source” buzzword of Xen? Evidence seems to appear in articles like this new one, but it’s too early to make an accurate prediction.
As a third example, consider this: a case of describing the GNU/Linux-hostile Silverlight in an open source context. Remember “open source-compatible”? The abuse of terminology for marketing purposes truly boggles the mind.
For more lies, see this short analysis of the Xandros-Linspire situation. Both are mentally aligned with Microsoft — in terms of business goals and ways of accomplishing these goals.
Funny
liesreading: Q&A: Xandros’ CEO Andreas Typaldos — Kevin Carmony: Xandros / Linspire - Here Comes the Spin — Kevin Carmony: Michael Robertson, Where’s the Cash? — Michael Robertson: Xandros Buys Linspire — Comments on LWN.net, and on The Register.Of course, it was all about this happening: Xandros Acquires Linspire, Creator of CNR Application Distribution Facility and Freespire Desktop.
Both distros are dead cows anyway.
We covered this before and reached a similar conclusion, which is backed by several other publications [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Selling out to Microsoft was an act of misery that will get these two players nowhere. All they ever wanted was a ‘cheap Windows’, without much (or any) regard for the values of Free software. it doesn’t work that way and they will find this out the hard way.
To borrow an old joke, you can put an “open source” lipstick on a proprietary resource pig and put it on the server. But it’s still a proprietary resource pig, which is bug-ridden, poorly-supported and therefore unstable and unreliable. No volunteer would support it. █
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Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. Learn more
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. Learn more
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. Learn more
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. Learn more
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. Learn more
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy. Learn more
