Cape Town, 01 Dec 2006
Derek Keats, the outspoken critic of the deal between Novell and Microsoft, has reached a "mutually agreeable stance" with Novell ahead of the open source software vendor's public presentation in Cape Town.
Novell and Microsoft's covenant not to sue each other over patents caused a stir within the free/libre open source software community (Floss).
Keats, head of IT at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), has written to Stafford Massie, Novell SA's MD, saying the agreement threatens the general public licence (GPL). The GPL governs the right for people and organisations to contribute and use the software without fear of being sued by a commercial entity.
Keats says he is still digesting the implications of the "mutually acceptable stance", but otherwise has given no further details.
Floss-related Internet chat lines have been crowded with commentary on the debate, with strong views being expressed for and against the Microsoft-Novell deal, as well as UWC's stance. Keats' own opinions are his own and not necessarily official university policy.
Too early
However, on the Cape Linux User Group chat, one contributor from UWC points out it is university policy to use Floss as much as possible, including on servers and desktops. However, the university may give permission to use proprietary applications in instances where no Floss equivalent exists or is suitable.
Peter Hunter, Novell's Cape regional manager, says while he respects the views of people such as Keats, he believes it is still too early for a definite stance to be taken.
"I have received very mixed feelings from people within the industry. However, the trend I noticed was that developers are generally against the deal, while business decision-makers are for it," he says.
Hunter is to present details of the Novell-Microsoft deal at a public forum to be held on 7 December under the auspices of the Cape IT Initiative. It is unconfirmed whether Massie will attend, but this will be the first such public forum in the country where the deal will be discussed.
Not good for SA
Alastair Otter, editor of open source publication Tectonic, says the deal is obviously good for Novell and Microsoft, but it creates the impression it puts the GPL issue under threat.
"The deal potentially puts all those who have contributed to Floss development under threat of being sued by Microsoft. This is not good for a country such as ours where we need to become a developer of software rather an importer of it," he says.
Otter believes the deal constitutes a huge threat towards the smaller software developers.
Novell's Hunter says the deal will help open source software become more mainstream and graduate from the single function uses it has been put to.
"Currently, most open source software is being used in instances such as point of sale and for servers. This deal means it can now be developed and become a proper mainstream product and move into the knowledge worker environment," he says.
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