On Sun, 07 Jan 2007 at 02:08:47PM +0000, John Cooper wrote:
> Adam Trickett wrote:
> >On Sunday 07 January 2007 09:57, John Cooper wrote:
> >
> >>This article really shows what the deal is all about and hopefully
> >>anyone who thinks it will help Linux will think again.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Some people have suggested that most of the deal is actually a clever move
> >by Novell, the have Microsoft in an awkward place, and it's Novell that's
> >mostly in the driving seat. The patent deal is in bad faith, but as it may
> >be worthless (and Novell may know this), it could be that MS have coughed
> >up $400m to Novell and get nothing of any use in return.
> >
> >
> I doubt that M$ would change its strategy it has successfully used up to
> now.
I agree, but I think some people are suggesting that MS have got themselves
in a mess with Novell, who were about to drag them into the SCO case. Novell
are in a strong position, so MS offered Novell a lot of money to agree
to licence some MS software. Essentially MS paid Novell off. The patent
stuff being added at the last minute, which allegdly caught Novell off-guard.
> Andy Smith wrote:
>
> >"Duh, Linux is a threat. The rest of the article reads like hearsay FUD."
>
> >I particularly cannot imagine what a fantasy such as the following is
> >doing in a supposedly credible news source:
>
>
> It isn't fantasy but it is FUD. It is someone applying their strategy to
> the type of meeting that would have been called and playing them at
> their own game. It shows the most likely reason of Embrace, extend and
> extinguish. They can't touch the GPL so trying to fragment the community
> is one way to try and reduce the threat.
I agree, MS are in a pickle, they may have more features than opensource in
some areas, but on a features/price ratio, cost of ownership, time to market
they are way behind and they know it even if they won' admit it. What do
you do if you have a monopoly but know that the competition offers better
value for money and is eating into your market share - though only
slowly at the moment and is seriously eating into to your margin?
--
Adam Trickett
Overton, HANTS, UK
Stupidity maintained long enough is a form of malice.
-- Richard Bos's corollary
