COVENANT MATTERS
COVENANT MATTERS
Dear Linux Magazine Reader,
Usually we only get one cataclysmic,
world-changing Linux event per month, but it looks like we had two this month. The first was the news that Oracle plans to produce a spin-off of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and sell support for way less than Red Hat is charging. The second was the announcement of a deal between Microsoft and Novell in which, reportedly, Microsoft provides a patent covenant offering protection to users of Suse Linux from suits for patent infringement. It is hard to explicate both these explosions in just one page, so I guess I should just pick one. If anything, the Oracle announcement seems to have more potential for altering the landscape, but maybe that means I should talk about the Novell deal because there is a greater disparity between what it means and what it sounds like it means. This new patent covenant from Microsoft seems fully intended to invert itself in the mind of the viewer. The user is supposed to think, “If Microsoft will not sue the users of Suse, that means they will sue the users of other Linux distros. If they will sue users of other distros, that means I’d better not use the other distros, which means I’d better use Suse.”
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
News
-
System76 Teams up with HP to Create the Dev One Laptop
HP and System76 have come together to develop a new laptop, powered by Pop!_OS and aimed toward developers.
-
Titan Linux is a New KDE Linux Based on Debian Stable
Titan Linux is a new Debian-based Linux distribution that features the KDE Plasma desktop with a focus on usability and performance.
-
Danielle Foré Has an Update for elementary OS 7
Now that Ubuntu 22.04 has been released, the team behind elementary OS is preparing for the upcoming 7.0 release.
-
Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub
New job website focuses on connecting technical and non-technical professionals with organizations in open source.
-
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 Now Available
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 has been released with all the additions from upstream as well as other features and improvements.
-
Pop!_OS 22.04 Has Officially Been Released
From the makers of some of the finest Linux-powered desktop and laptop computers on the market comes the latest version of their Ubuntu-based distribution, Pop!_OS 22.04.
-
Star Labs Unveils a New Small Format Linux PC
The Byte Mk I is an AMD-powered mini Linux PC with Coreboot support and plenty of power.
-
MX Linux Verison 21.1 “Wildflower” Now Available
The latest release of the systemd-less MX Linux is now ready for public consumption.
-
Microsoft Expands Their Windows Subsystem for Linux Offerings With AlmaLinux
Anyone who works with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) will now find a new addition to the available distributions, one that’s become the front-runner replacement for CentOS.
-
Debian 11.3 Released wIth Numerous Bug and Security Fixes
The latest point release for Debian Bullseye is now available with some very important updates.