Novell to abide by GPLv3, with or without Microsoft

One of Novell's business partners might have just shunned GPLv3 but that hasn't stopped the Linux distributor from throwing its weight behind the new open-source license. In a blog entry posted on Novell's website, director of PR Bruce Lowry explained Novell intends to continue support for SUSE Linux, including technologies that fall under GPLv3. "Given the terms of GPLv3, we re-affirm Novell's ability to include technologies licensed under GPLv2 or GPLv3 in SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE, and other Novell offerings and to deliver these technologies to our customers, he said. "This is good news for our customers, who enjoy using the best engineered and most interoperable Linux platform for mission-critical computing. Novell welcomes and supports GPLv3, and intends to include code licensed under GPLv3 in its distribution." What then of Microsoft, which will be distributing SUSE Linux support certificates? "Microsoft's current position, taken unilaterally, is intended to eliminate any perceived ambiguity about the applicability of GPLv3 to Microsoft," Lowry explains. "Nonetheless and independent of Microsoft's position, we would like to make clear our commitment to our customers that Novell will continue to distribute SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with its full set of functionality and features, including those components that are licensed under GPLv3."

For more on Novell's GPLv3 plans:
- check out this blog entry