[Discuss] MS and Novell

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2006-11-08 10:50-0800 Thor Heinrichs-Wolpert wrote:

> SuSe, as a Linux distro can't be compared to SCO, so the FUD is
un-warranted, unless you own RedHat stock *g*.

Well, you are incorrect about my supposed RedHat stock and also you should
call what I said HUD, not FUD. :-)

I have no fear, but I certainly do admit to honest uncertainty and doubt
about Novell's future in the Linux world.  Here's the fundamental reasons.
The most viable business models for commercial Linux distributions boil down
to paid support.  That is pretty low-margin business with competition from
lots of free Linux support that is available so it requires constant effort
to keep that business model profitable. Furthermore, by its very nature,
Linux is cooperative so Linux developers hired by Novell have to remain on
good terms with other Linux developers. Finally, a lot of new open-source
business depends on word-of-mouth advertising.  Under these delicate
business conditions it does not seem like a good tactic to me to piss off
the Linux community.

Alan
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Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net); the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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