Novell's Finally Sold: Going To Attachmate & Microsoft

[BlackStar]

I hope this doesn't mean the end of openSUSE.

Well, the source is out there, so that's doubtful. At worst, they might have to change names, which is not too terrible (think RHEL vs Fedora).

That said, openSUSE hasn't been in the spotlight for quite some time now. It's a good, user-friendly distro, but it simply doesn't generate excitement, like Fedora or Ubuntu, anymore.

[devius]

I hope this doesn't mean the end of openSUSE.

[not.sure]

Of course, Microsoft may have something else in their minds entirely.

Microsoft (TM) Enterprise Unix (TM) 2012 Small Business Professional Server Edition R2

No good before SP2.

[V!NCENT]

If they haven't done it with Xenix, why would they do it with Linux?

*Cough-cough*
"Apple is better because it's UNIX so I can't get a virus"
*Cough*



Now you do the 1+1

[yogi_berra]

Of course, Microsoft may have something else in their minds entirely.

Microsoft (TM) Enterprise Unix (TM) 2012 Small Business Professional Server Edition R2

Oh, god.

(Anyone knows how to add TM marks?)

If they haven't done it with Xenix, why would they do it with Linux?

[next9]

I tought Novell donated patents to OIN. Since they were donated, OIN became their owner, and they can not be undonated and sold to anybody by Novell. Are you sure OIN lost those "defensive patents" ?

[PsynoKhi0]

Maybe, maybe not. I guess not, at least for the near future.

About those 882 patents being their whole portfolio:
[Slashdot link]

From Slashdot too:

There is a threat here, but it has nothing to do with the Unix copyrights. We have already established really, really well that the Unix copyrights are irrelevant at this late date. They can't be used like patents to enforce against other similar works. They were released under an unterminating BSD license and covered by a government standard. Forget them.

What they got was 481 patents that were part of a portfolio that Open Invention Network had previously used to defend Linux against patent suits. So, this is escalation in the patent war they are running against Linux, because they just removed one of our defensive weapons.

[Fenrin]

After reading the wikipedia entry of the Attachmate corporation, I am not very amused that this corporation buys the most parts of Novell

This corporation is the largest private Software corporation in Washington. They produce monitoring and security software among other software types.
I guess this corporation has a bright future with those huge cyberwar spendings in the US

[BlackStar]

Of course, Microsoft may have something else in their minds entirely.

Microsoft (TM) Enterprise Unix (TM) 2012 Small Business Professional Server Edition R2

Oh, god.

(Anyone knows how to add TM marks?)

[BlackStar]

Hmm... The statement reads "Novell also announced it has entered into a definitive agreement for the concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC".
Found the exact figure you mentioned first here.
That's very creepy... Taken from here:

So... Another patent troll?

Gonna have to wait till the dust settles I guess...

Maybe, maybe not. I guess not, at least for the near future.

About those 882 patents being their whole portfolio:

NOVL has now filed its 8K. The IP deal is for 882 patents.

A quick search of the Patent-Pair Assignment database indicates that this likely every "friggin" patent Novell owns. That is Patent-Pair has 1711 entries with Novell as an assignee, but since these include duplicate application and granted patents, as well as other stuff, the total patents sold down the river to Redmond likely represents everything touched by Novell.

Unfortunately, you have to be a registered lawyer to access the database so I cannot verify the number myself.