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[News] Ubuntu Revolt and Novell Revolt Covered in DistroWatch Weekly

Technology versus ideology

,----[ Quote ]
| Some of the topics that have come up in the DistroWatch Weekly discussion 
| forum recently is the issue of violating the GPL by some distributions and 
| the question of boycotting Novell and its products due to the company's role 
| in legitimising the infamous Linux patent claim by Microsoft. Some readers 
| went as far as asking us to remove certain distributions from the DistroWatch 
| list, while others want us take a more active role in exposing Novell's 
| patent deal and its implications on the future of Linux and open source 
| software. Although all these readers have valid points and we welcome the 
| diversity of opinions in the forum, don't expect DistroWatch to become 
| another Groklaw and to cover these topics extensively here.         
| 
| Why? There are several reasons. Firstly, none of us is a lawyer and none of 
| us intends to become one. While we do agree that a GPL violation is a very 
| serious matter indeed, just because a reader emails us alleging that a 
| project does not comply with its terms and conditions, it doesn't make him 
| right. Until the project is convicted in the court of law, it is innocent. 
| Secondly, there are web sites that are better equipped (in terms of 
| expertise) to deal with GPL violations, patent protection agreements and 
| other lawyer's stuff. Groklaw has been covering these topics for several 
| years, while BoycottNovell.com is another web site that continues to expose 
| the Novell-Microsoft patent protection agreement. For smaller community 
| projects, our friend Béranger will uncover any distribution that does not 
| have a "source" directory on their FTP server. If you feel strongly about 
| licence violations and patent agreements, I suggest you spend more time on 
| the above-mentioned web sites and their forums.             
`----

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080519#feature

Also:

Hate Ubuntu? It's normal!

,----[ Quote ]
| The fact that many people dislike the top distribution is not really a 
| problem. The problem is that many of these folks are extremely vocal on the 
| Internet to express their opinions. While no intelligent reader will ever 
| take them seriously, they do give the Linux community a bad name and 
| discourage potential Linux users from joining us. Can anything be done about 
| this? Not much, it seems. Until people start reading their own posts and 
| realise that senseless negativity towards the most popular distribution is 
| counter-productive, we will have to live with the unfortunate fact that the 
| top dog will always be the most hated one too - at least in the more immature 
| and destructive circles on the Internet.         
`----

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080519#feature

Ubuntu isn't too harmful. Progress is made for everyone to share (it's GPL).

Weekly Newsletter #91

,----[ Quote ]
|     * FOSSCamp 2008 Prague
|     * The Art of Release(Mark Shuttleworth)
|     * Making 5-a-day happen in “Your Loco team”
|     * Ubuntu Stats
|     * Launchpad News
|     * Ubuntu Forums News
|     * In the Press & Blogosphere
|     * In Other News
|     * Upcoming Meetings & Events
|     * Updates & Security
`----

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1447

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