Icontinue to follow the MS-Novell deal, since I think it is one of the major (if a bit arcane) tech stories this year. The latest related piece of news is how it has impacted the drafting of the new GPL3 license. Immediately after the announcement, the draft of the GPL3 was edited to prevent any future similar agreements, and to preclude Novell from continuing to distribute their SuSE distribution (assuming that they included GPL3 licensed content).

Today's story (read it here). reports that the FSF has revised the latest draft such that Novell can continue to offer SuSE linux with the patent covenant that they now offer, even with the GPL3 license. In other words, they grandfathered the MS-Novell deal. I'm glad they did. First of all it shows a certain sense of realism about the situation. Microsoft and Novell lawyers found an innovative strategy to deal with the patent issue. No one would be well served if the FSF, through the GPL3 license, continued the fight - confusion is not a friend of widespread use. And as the news article reports, having Novell use the GPL3 if they choose to, will minimize the confusion. IP matters - and the Microsoft-Novell deal has gotten more people focused on that point. We're still waiting on the bigger question - and that is, which way will the Linux kernel group go. The last I heard, there was no definative statement.