A Week I Would Rather Forget at Robert Pogson

There have been a remarkable cluster of disasters this week:

My employer required me to move from a 3 bedroom trailer to another smaller and shared unit. This happens but it is really an imposition in the middle of the year. At one point they asked me to move in with a smoker. That was not going to happen…
School was closed due to H1N1 influenza outbreak
M$ bought Novell, more or less
Oracle won a big verdict from SAP and, while all this was happening
our Internet satellite feed died. Murphy’s Law, I guess.

I am not sure how Oracle v SAP affects me except that it pumps up Larry’s ego to dangerous levels. It sure brings my little problems into focus.

M$ buying Novell through a third party controlled by M$ is interesting. It is obvious that they did not buy Novell directly to avoid anti-competition considerations but it seems a smoke-screen. It will be interesting to see how ugly GNU/Linux can be made when M$ manages things. They could just shut Suse down or diversify. It will be interesting to see how they sell two products that are so different.

I strongly suspect M$ deliberately funded SCOG v World. I expect after buying Novell they could take another run at IBM or others for what it’s worth. More likely they would see RedHat as someone growing too quickly. Unfortunately for M$, since SCOG v World started in 2003, the GNU/Linux community has grown greatly in power and collectively are perfectly able to fight back. Individually, M$ could do a lot of damage if the GNU/Linux community is fragmented. We shall see.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.