The Waltham, Massachusetts-based Linux and identity management software vendor has responded to reports published since the weekend that suggested the FSF might ban Novell from distributing Linux or withdraw its license.
The Free Software Foundation has never threatened to try to ban Novell, or anyone else, from shipping Linux, said Novell spokesperson Bruce Lowry. The FSF has expressed that it doesn’t much like the Novell-Microsoft agreement, and that the next version of the GPL3 may try to address some of the issues raised by the agreement. But Richard Stallman of the FSF has publicly said there’s no violation of the GPL2.
The dramatic headlines appear to have been sparked by confusion in a Reuters story published on Saturday morning that snowballed out of control. The story quoted the FSF’s general counsel, Eben Moglen, as stating that the FSF was making changes to the GPL that would not allow similar deals.
As previously reported, Moglen initiated a review of the deal shortly after Novell and Microsoft promised not to sue each other’s customers for patent infringement to see whether the agreement ran afoul of the GNU General Public License, by which Linux is distributed.
Some open source advocates had feared that the agreement might split the Linux market, and concerns were realized when Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, used the deal to suggest that there might be patent issues related to other Linux distributions.
While Moglen is yet to report his findings, FSF chairman Richard Stallman announced in November that while the agreement was not in violation of the current version 2 of the GPL, the forthcoming GPL v3 would include provisions that would block such an arrangement.
If the GPL v3 does include such provisions when it is finalized in the spring, Novell might well find itself in a difficult position. While Linux creator Linus Torvalds has decided that the Linux kernel will stick with GPL v3, many of the GNU tools that go to make up a full Linux distribution will move to GPL v3.
It seems likely that Novell will be forced to maintain support for older version of these tools or rethink its Microsoft agreement if the FSF does succeed in its aims, but Novell maintained that it is not going to respond to ifs and buts at this stage.
The GPL 3 process is ongoing. Novell continues to participate in discussions with the FSF and the other vendors involved in the process. We are not prepared to pronounce on possible outcomes to that process, and what they mean for SUSE Linux. That would be pure speculation at this stage, and would only serve to muddy the waters, said Lowry.
