Re: Groklaw watcher: Novell got $240 million from MS for SUSE subscriptions and $108 million for patent something

[David Kastrup]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> -----------
> Novell got $240 million from MS for SUSE subscriptions and $108 million
> for patent something
>
> The Novell 8-K is up with some details about their sellout to MS.
>
> Microsoft bought $240 million worth of SUSE subscriptions that they can
> resell or shred or do whatever they want.
>
> Novell got $108 million for something to do with patents, but will pay
> Microsoft a total of at least $40 million over 5 years.

[...]

Microsoft is not exactly a charity.  They solve problems using money.
Novell is a problem, and the GPL does not provide much of a compelling
angle for solving by means of money.

So they just give Novell money without no good reason at all, and that
is probably the most effective use of it.

Note that the hosting provider EV1 got _serious_ backlash by its
customers because they _paid_ SCO license money in order to indemnify
their customers.  EV1 is not even a free software outlet, and they
damaged their customer relations by paying protection money.

Now Novell is supposed to be an Open Source outlet, and they are
_receiving_ net money for somewhat fuzzy patent/indemnification claims
and SuSE support licenses, and from nobody less than Microsoft.

If that is not going to get them backlash by typical customers, I'd be
very much surprised.  I can't imagine this to be a good PR move for
most of their targeted clientele.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum