Underneath the Red Hat Microsoft Deal, Bodhi is Five
Miss one day and the whole Linux world blows up, or so it seems. I was getting a chuckle out of all the Red Hat Microsoft headlines announcing the new Azure deal when I ran across Dr. Roy Schestowitz' posts. openSUSE was released on time and a couple of reviews are out. In other news, Bodhi Linux is 5 years old this month and Bruce Byfield examined the shrinking distribution menu.
The Red Hat Microsoft Azure deal, announced November 4 was the dominate topic in the headlines today. I was quite amused at the headlines sounding like Red Hat and Microsoft eloped off to Las Vegas or something. It began with Forbes.com saying, "First, Microsoft Loves Linux -- Now, Microsoft Loves Red Hat." Then the Utah People's Post called it a "bromance" that "is long overdue" while PCWorld said they "finally tied the knot" quoting an analyst saying, "Hell has frozen over." Redmond Magazine called it a "new open source partnership" saying it's the "deepest partnership with another major enterprise infrastructure player to date." Clapway.com's Annie Pichardo said "Microsoft and Red Hat Take Over Cloud Market" though Red Hat describes that as "delivering a new standard." Microsoft itself said they'll "deliver more flexibility and choice."
However, Dr. Roy Schestowitz isn't celebrating. In fact, he said the deal could very well put many distributions out of business (so to speak) and Red Hat users at risk. He said the deal involves patent agreements and data collection. It's all about money according to Schestowitz who said, "At Red Hat money now matters more than freedom and ethics." For Microsoft it's about double and triple taxing users in addition to collecting and selling their data. Red Hat isn't interested in defending GNU/Linux against patent trolls and instead pays out to settle cases and now signs a patent deal according to Schestowitz and his quoted and linked sources. Microsoft has and is continuing to pursue lawsuits against Open Source entities. Nasdaq.com said on the subject Microsoft is known for "aggressively seeking royalties from its software patents" then quoted Red Hat's Paul Cormier saying, "We both know we have very different positions on software patents. We weren't expecting each other to compromise." So, at least one other site covered the patent situation, even if not in depth. Red Hat stock closed at $82.75 after the announcement Wednesday and finshed up today, Thursday, at 81.57.
Sam Varghese today asked, "With two companies — Microsoft and Red Hat — from opposite ends of the software spectrum linking arms in a deal overnight, the big question that remains is: what happens to the SUSE-Microsoft deal?" He suggests SUSE might not get the same level of assistance it once did now. But then again, he also speculated that the deal is "unlikely to earn any criticism from the open source community" as the deal with SUSE did. I guess he hasn't read Schestowitz lately.
Speaking of SUSE, openSUSE 42.1 Leap was released on schedule with Douglas DeMaio saying it's the "first hybrid distribution." openSUSE 42.1 is the first of their Open Source releases to be built on SUSE Linux Enterprise code and adding in community contributions. "openSUSE Leap will benefit from the enterprise maintenance effort and will have some of the same packages and updates as SLE." Download yours here. UnixMan Chris Jones has a review in which he said, "What really stood out for us here in the Labs was the absolute stability of the system as a whole."
Bodhi Linux turns 5 on November 16 Jeff Hoogland reminded us today. He said he began Bodhi as a way to cut down on repetitive install and upgrade tasks. He said before taking a look back:
I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to Bodhi Linux over the years. Without your code, forums posts, documentation, monetary donations, translations, and many other things I am sure I am forgetting – we would not still be here today. The power of the open source community continually impresses me and I am honored to be a part of it – giving back in whatever way I can.
In other news:
* Fedora 23 KDE screenshots, Side by side: openSuSE Leap and Fedora 23
* The Decline of Linux Distribution Diversity
* Feminists Are Trying to Frame Linus Torvalds for Sexual Assalt, Claims Open Source Industry Veteran