Last week I boxed up all my SuSE CDs and DVDs and mailed them back to Ronald W. Hovsepian, president of Novell, Inc. I threw all the manuals in the recycling bin. This decision was driven by Novell’s recent licensing agreement with Microsoft.
I included the following letter with the software:
Ronald W. Hovsepian
President and CEO
Novell, Inc.
404 Wyman Street
Waltham, MA 02451
December 21st, 2006
Mr. Hovsepian,
Enclosed you will find all the SuSE software I own. I am returning it. I don’t need it anymore. I will no longer be purchasing, downloading, recommending, supporting, or using your software.
I have been an SuSE customer for many years — since the mid-90’s when it was called S.u.S.E. and 3-D graphs of equations were featured on the covers of the manuals.
The agreement you entered into with Microsoft is an attempt to play “fast and loose” with the GPL. Groklaw, the Samba team, Bruce Perens, and others have presented well thought out opinions on the situation. I agree with them totally.
I have switched from SuSE to Kubuntu. I know that in the long run I have made the right decision.
Sincerely,
Michael Tarrant
cc: http://www.Sparkzy.com
Samba Team Asks Novell to Reconsider
http://news.samba.org/announcements/team_to_novell/
Protest the Microsoft-Novell Patent Agreement
http://techp.org/petition/show/1
A five year deal with Microsoft to dump Novell/SUSE
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000121
3 Comments
Polishlinux.org lets you compare two (of 17) linux distributions side-by-side.
“Choose two GNU/Linux or BSD flavors and see how they compare in features and supported software/hardware. This may help you select the right operating system for your needs.”
Here’s SuSE vs. Ubuntu:
http://polishlinux.org/choose/comparison/?distro1=SUSE&distro2=Ubuntu
(Found via digg.com)
Oh great,
Yet another person why rather turns his back to all those SUSE developers and communities because some big company people might not play nice. I thought it was about SUSE, not about CEOs and marketing tricks.
SuSE is a linux distribution sold by Novell. SuSE does NOT equal linux.
There are a few developers who work for Novell, so I suppose I am “turning my back” on them. But the bulk of linux developers don’t work for Novell, and (usually) aren’t paid for their efforts.
I support the non-Novell developers. I still use linux. I still like linux. I still advocate for linux, and whenever possible I support linux financially.
I think SuSE made a huge mistake by getting involved with Microsoft. I will not buy a linux distribution from a company which has shown such poor judgment in doing business.