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FSF to Ban Novell Linux Sales? Not Exactly

Reuters came out this week with rather a splashy story saying that the Free Software Foundation is considering, as some sort of retribution for the big deal with Microsoft, banning Novell from selling its Linux distribution.

Apparently, though, the FSF can't, and wouldn't, really do that.

One might suspect, too, that Microsoft's deep pockets and pretty good (everything considered) track record in the legal system might win the day over the open source zealots if push came to shove.

Meanwhile, one commentator says that Bill Gates will have to step in for Steve Ballmer and quiet the continuing row between Microsoft and the open source community. We're not so sure that the open source community wields quite as much clout as it thinks it does (as Microsoft has, after all, been concentrating on getting some new OS out the door lately, which might explain its relative silence on open source issues), but it's an interesting perspective, anyway. And we're all about an exchange of ideas here.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 06, 2007


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