Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Riddled with Metaphors

I would like to take a moment here to thank Novell for providing me with countless hours of priceless comedy. No matter how insanely terrible the weather outside might be, and no matter how crappy my day might be going, I can always look forward to getting an awesome laugh out of the latest story about the Microsoft/Novell deal.

I still don't understand how some people are so easily fooled. Look at what Novell's good friend Steve Ballmer said today.

"I would not anticipate that we make a huge additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly establishes that open source is not free, and open source will have to respect the intellectual-property rights of others, just as any other competitor will."

So thanks for selling not only yourselves out, but everyone else, as well. We live in an age where the senselessness of one person or group is amplified and causes a definite domino effect.

To me, the above says that two things. First, Novell might as well fold up today, they're done. Second, the higher ups at Microsoft believe that the only way they can effectively compete with Open Source is via litigation. That's sad news because I know that there are smarter people at Microsoft who understand exactly how Open Source dramatically changes the value proposition for the customer, and are trying to reform that corrupt culture. Who knows, they might one day be successful. After all: