From: mike 


http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=21823&hed=Microsoft%92s+Linux+Woes&sec
tor=Industries&subsector=Computing

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Latest Linux proposals could leave software behemoth and Novell out in cold.


Software behemoth Microsoft could be one of the biggest losers from
proposed license changes to the Linux operating system unveiled Wednesday.

That’s a possible outcome of updates to the license pushed by the Free
Software Foundation. The FSF wants to make mutually exclusive pacts such as
the Novell-Microsoft open-source agreement (see Exit Interview: Jeremy
Allison, Strange Bedfellows) a violation of the next iteration of the GNU
GPL (General Public License), the license that governs Linux use.

“The impact I think most observers are worried about… [is] that the
aggregated changes will prevent widespread adoption and therefore fragment
the market into GPLv2 and v3 projects,” Red Monk analyst Stephen O’Grady
said, referring to names of the current and upcoming licenses.

The FSF has the rights to what’s called GNU Linux—software that makes up
the Linux operating system—though not to the Linux kernel itself. The FSF
says that the Microsoft-Novell partnership goes against the philosophy of
making software code free for all. The new license, if accepted, could
isolate Microsoft, as well as Novell, from the rest of the open-source
community.

What it means it that Novell and Microsoft would have to stay with the
GPLv2 license since it would be in violation of the GPLv3 license—and the
duo would not be able to take advantage of new developments made under
GPLv3.

Microsoft reacted to the proposal with concern. “It is unfortunate that the
FSF is attempting to use the GPLv3 to prevent future collaboration among
industry leaders to benefit customers,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s
vice president of intellectual property and licensing, in an email.

The upcoming license will be the third such license to regulate GNU-based
software. The free, or open-source, GNU is the basis for many software
projects, such as the Gnome desktop. The latest draft of GPLv3 was released
Wednesday—three months after it was supposed to come out as the FSF
scrambled to address the alliance between Novell and Microsoft.

“It’s about … how do we prevent these types of attacks on free software
from occurring,” said FSF executive director Peter Brown, whose group
prefers the word “free” to the common term “open source.”

The organization isn’t alone in its belief that Microsoft’s deal with
Novell opens the door for it to take action against other distributors such
as Red Hat and Ubuntu. “There are a great many who feel that [Novell and
Microsoft] violate the spirit by way of its exclusiveness,” Mr. O’Grady
said.

But the GPLv3 doesn’t address all concerns related to free code—namely,
disagreements among proponents of open or free software code. For one
thing, the community around the Linux kernel will likely not adopt the
license. Linus Torvalds, who led the creation of the kernel, is against the
update.

“One of my major gripes with it is that it extends the GPLv2 so much that
it’s not at all the same license …The GPLv3 imposes a number of new rules
that aren’t really acceptable to many people, and as such it just means
that rather than have one common license, we’ll have two,” Mr. Tovalds told
Red Herring last year (see Q&A: Linus Torvalds).

“The greatest conflict with the GPLv3 tends to be focused around DRM and
restricting vendor behavior that is contrary to the Free Software
Foundation principles,” said 451 Group analyst Raven Zachary.

Despite concerns over which communities and which GPL projects will embrace
the new license, some major players likely will adopt GPLv3. For example,
Mr. Zachary said Sun Microsystems is likely on board. It’s “leaning toward
the use of GPLv3, possibly for an additional license opportunity for
OpenSolaris,” Sun’s open operating system.

And not all software giants are evil, Mr. Brown said: “So far Oracle has
abided by the [current GPL] license, and indeed have promoted free
software.”

Novell’s director of public relations, Bruce Lowry, wrote in his blog that
despite his company’s alliance with Microsoft, “Novell has been and
continues to be a strong supporter of free software and open source.” He
also wrote, “If the final version of the GPL3 does potentially impact the
agreement we have with Microsoft, we’ll address that with Microsoft.”

If all goes well, GPLv3 will take affect in June. The Linux community may
not unite before then, though, despite everyone sharing a similar
goal—“freedom for computer users,” as Mr. Brown put it.
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  /m

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