[KLUG Advocacy] [Fwd: [Mono-list] Novell acquires Ximian.]

[Adam Williams]

> Upon thinking about this further, this could really turn into something
> interesting. Think of the origins: Windows started out at the desktop and forged
> its way into the server market. Novell led the server market for a long time,
> and now they are entering the desktop arena. It's like they started at opposite
> ends of the spectrum.
> It will be interesting to see how Ximian plays into the Novell product line. Is
> it a given that Ximian Desktop will remain open source? Or could/would Novell
> "close" some of that? 

Since everything except connector is GPL'd they'd have a hard time
closing anything that isn't already closed (connector).  Remember, other
than Connector Ximian has no "products".  They have red-carpet express,
which is a "service".  Ximian is simply a "distribution" of GNOME like
RedHat is a distribution of LINUX.  Redhat's clear focus is on the
server (they've even said so), hence ASE, etc... so someone else focus's
on the desktop. 

This really makes sense for Novell.  They've already said that they will
integrate red-carpet into Zenworks - which makes sense for propogateing
updates to servers, etc....  

And they've already said that there WILL BE a connector for Groupwise.

> If they could get Ximian Connector to talk to a GroupWise message store, there
> would be great rejoicing here.

Prepare to rejoice.