[odf-discuss] Novell's Michael Meeks on ODF

[Christian Einfeldt]

hi

I know that some folks here on this list are critical of Novell, and I
wanted to explore that topic a little bit, because I am still generally more
pro-Novell than contra-Novell, in light of their overall contributions to
FOSS.  I don't pretend to be an expert at any of these issues, which is why
I am raising these points here -- for feedback, both positive and negative.

The most direct reason for me bringing this up now is a discussion on /.
that some of us here might want to monitor.  It's a story in which Michael
Meeks of Novell is commenting on ODF and MSOOXML:

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/29/2341224

Generally speaking, I believe that the Microsoft - Novell deal was and is an
attempt by Novell to compete with Microsoft for customers.  I believe that
Novell is actively trying to compete with Microsoft by getting close to them
and then directing Microsoft's customers toward Novell products and
solutions, many of which are FOSS-based.  Also, there is, of course, the
Coupon fandango which Novell seems to have snookered upon Microsoft, which
both Pamela Jones and Eben Moglen have said might undermine Microsoft's
patent claims (if I understand Pamela and Eben correctly).

And, of course, there was the recent story in which Novell is dedicating a
developer to accelerate GNU Linux drivers:

http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/09/28/0544226.shtml

Now I do recall that maybe Lars or Daniel has said that they are critical of
Novell for protecting only the official Novell versions of OOo, and I
usually agree with most of what Daniel and Lars say.  In this case, though,
I am not currently all that bothered by the fact that a corporation would
only support code it distributes; in fact, I would say that Novell's actions
could be seen as encouraging others to do the same with code they
distribute.

I know that lots of very knowledgeable people who are very committed to the
success of FOSS have been critical of Novell, and so I do give a lot of
weight to their opinions.  Lars and Daniel are among that group.  And yet I
currently also see that there are lots of good things that can flow from
Novell's actions.

Own small anecdotal piece of evidence:  my politically conservative
Republican father was really impressed when 1) IBM started running Linux
commercials; and 2) when Microsoft made that deal with Novell.  He said
something to the effect that Microsoft must really have problems with their
basic business model if they are being forced to make deals with their
competitors (Novell).

See ya
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