SUSE-Moblin for MIDs and Netbooks?
Another Linux software distributor has announced that they will contribute towards the Moblin stack. Novell, who has the SUSE Linux brand, made an announcement yesterday (although I can’t find anything on the Novell press pages.)
Novell announced today that it will participate in and contribute to the Moblin open source project. Novell will start immediately contributing to Moblin’s specific sub-projects, such as its desktop compositing manager and multimedia abstraction layer. As a result of Novell’s participation, Moblin will be able to leverage Novell’s large community of contributors and many existing open source projects. Novell will promote Moblin within these projects and continue its role in ensuring future innovations for all Linux* desktops, including Mobile and Connected Devices.
We now have Canonical, Xandros, Linpus, gOS, Wind River and Novell in the Moblin space. You could say that it’s great news and that it will make developing software for millions of MIDs and Netbooks easier but from what I’ve seen so far, every distributor, every OEM and every carrier appears to want it their own way so they can develop solutions at their own speed and put their own control on it. You could say that too many cooks are going to spoil the broth!
October 21st, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Novell has a patent deal with Microsoft that no one else in the LINUX world wants to go near.
Novell should NOT be allowed to SNEAK into Moblin any Microsoft tainted technology (MONO or other). This would put a “free linux” in some way for the first time, subject to future legal actions from Microsoft (with Novell the only one protected because of the Microsoft patent deal that they have NOW).
Red Hat refuses to go into such a deal with Microsoft.
Moblin needs to stay away from any Novell influence that might taint Moblin with any stuff that is Microsoft’s that Novell might want to slip in.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Novell…Novell…that isn’t the same network software company from the 1990s is it? I though it, along with WordPerfect, were dead.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Novell’s involvement into this OS will mean richer applications and more desktop compatability.
End users are so afraid of Mono however lawyers around the world have accepted it. So do corporations.
When will Linux learn this isn’t Linux vs Microsoft. This is about Linux reaching its potential. Close minded leaders is what is holding it back currently.
Stop being afraid to innovate. Accept technology and do it better than everyone else. Be more compatible than anyone else. Have richer applications than anyone else.
Stop being afraid and start adopting/extending/innovating.
Moblin / Linux has a lot of potential but it needs to stop these kinds of thoughts.
Danger in Novell helping with Moblin...! Reply:
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Linux can do everything already without MONO. Why is it even needed? It is not. It serves just one purpose. That purpose is spelled “Microsoft’s lock-in to preserve their shrink wrap monopoly”. Novell just decided they needed money and got paid by Microsoft (they caved in). Remember, Novell is also a PER SEAT shrink wrap company as well.
When you say richer (you mean richer for Microsoft and Novell). End users do not need either .Net or Mono!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Xandros too has a part with Microsoft,but still they remain opensource (eventhough you pay $20 per OS)
October 21st, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Please, enough rubbish about Novell and ‘the’ Microsoft deal.
Opensuse is in my opinion the most solid and worthwhile or all the linux distro’s and i use it almost daily.
That said, my money is maemo and the Nokia N900 for a truly great UMPC.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:41 am
Linux for desktops and end users has always suffered from too much choice. Instead of doing one or a few solutions very well, new developers often decide that they must attempt to do it all over and try to end up “better” somehow. Now we have endless distributions, desktop managers, window managers and innumerable OSS projects that represent duplicate, wasted effort. None of them do everything well for a user that doesn’t want to learn the technology.
GNU/Linux needs a benevolent dictator that is able to unite the field a bit and enable them to finish the job. Otherwise the only realistic OS choices for a normal user will remain Apple’s OS X and Microsoft Windows.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
That dictator is the GPL, a license dictator that Microsoft can not win against. Both .net and mono are not friendly with the GPL (Microsoft’s plan is to beat Linux from the inside).
anon too Reply:
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Also for your education see:
“A History of MS’ Standards ‘Dirty Tricks’ ”
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Dirty_Tricks_history
This is a list of prime examples of Microsoft’s monopoly games (to beat LINUX, and they are trying with .net and mono), they will be doing the same thing! Novell is just a MS pawn now.