[K12OSN] needed: recommendations for Linux flavor with ongoing support

[Petre Scheie]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-01-03 at 11:02 -0600, Petre Scheie wrote:
> 
>> --and GPL3 is being modified to prevent deals 
>> like the one between Novell & MS, 
> 
> Errr... GPL3 can only prevent distribution of GPL3 covered code,
> not slow down anything else.  I'm not sure why anyone wants
> that to happen.
> 
Allison resigned because while the deal may not violate the letter of the law, it does 
violate the intent of it; that's why Samba will move to GPL3 in the next release. I 
expect other projects will do likewise, though certainly not all.  Linus has said he 
thinks GPL3 is a bad idea, so the kernel may not be moving; OTOH, I *think* I recall 
reading somewhere that he also said that if the consensus in the kernel community 
evolves to favor GPL3, then he would go along with it (but I could be wrong about that).

So, in a year, say, Novell will be stuck with the last version of GPL2 Samba. Either 
they don't get a new version or they fork it themselves, and it's not clear they have 
the resources to handle that.  How many other projects that Novell uses in SUSE will 
move to GPL3?  That's what makes Novell's future murky, making SUSE a dubious choice for 
now.