Novell and OpenOffice.org — Harming, Helping, or Just Exploiting?

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http://boycottnovell.com –

New evidence of Novell's attempt to exploit OpenOffice.org while blaming Sun

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komrad's picture
Created by komrad 7 weeks 1 day ago
Category: Opposition   Tags:

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aboutblank's picture

aboutblank

7 weeks 1 day 1 hour 58 min ago

0

Selfish and Self serving!

  • According to recent communication among OpenOffice.org developers, Novell may slowly be alienating itself. Consider, for instance, what Michael Meeks writes.
  • That is of course just selfish, but it’s part of a broader picture.
  • The thread above teaches us [...] that Novell is refusing to contribute to the codebase of OpenOffice.org. It then accuses Sun Microsystems of standing in its way (see the links at the very top again). Not nice.

Who gave Roy the idea that free software developers are required to cooperate with other free software developers? Roy writes this article as if non-cooperation is supposed to be harmful. Non-cooperative work may not be helpful to everyone but it isn't really harmful to anyone.

So why is Novell wishing to help itself of any note? How does Novell not cooperating with software maintainers equate to exploiting (or harming) the software maintainers? I don't understand how this non-cooperation is supposed to show that Novell (as a alleged puppet of Microsoft) intends to subvert the free software movement.

Balzac's picture

Balzac

7 weeks 16 hours 6 min 2 sec ago

1

I'm glad Roy is watching Novell like a hawk.

Software patents are a prison for all of us. Novell is not ideologically aligned with the cause of freedom. To the contrary, they're financially backed by Microsoft, a company which seeks to eliminate computer users freedom entirely. The software patent betrayal can neither be excused nor forgotten. The Microsoft investment in Novell is not being ignored by Novell employees or the OpenSUSE project. Why should we ignore it?

BTW, I agree that we can still compete against each other, even while we are contributing to the same projects. The problem is that Microsoft is not just self-serving. They want to force everyone down on bended knee to kiss the ring of power to get access to anything.

aboutblank's picture

aboutblank

7 weeks 6 hours 42 min 24 sec ago

0

I'm Confused

The tone of this article was written as if Novell's non-cooperation with Sun on the OO.o project is intended to be harmful to Sun and the rest of the free software community. I want to understand how non-cooperation on a free software project equates to being harmful to the free software community.