[ale] Fedora and RHN?

[Chris Ricker]

On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, Geoffrey wrote:

> Chris Ricker wrote:
> 
> > And then there's the whole Novell uncertainty (a lot of things SuSE
> > got away with, being German, will probably have to change now, such
> > as all the GPL violations)
> 
> Such as?

At least under US laws, any GPL'ed mp3 software is non-redistributable due
to the patent encumbrances, and when you redistribute it (as SuSE does)
you're violating the GPL. Up to now, they've gotten away with it, either
because they don't care (no one's likely to complain) or because German laws
regarding patent licensing on software are different than US laws. Now that
Novell is the company, that may have to change.

It'll be interesting to see what happens after the merger. I kinda suspect
Novell may bring some of the things SuSE lacks (quality control, ease of
management of large deployments), but they're likely to hinder some of
SuSE's strong points as well (ease of use). I see it making SuSE a better 
server and a worse desktop, but that's just me and my WAG.

later,
chris