Novell and Real Time Linux
December 4th, 2007 by Kevan Barney 
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Last week, Novell began shipping SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 10 for running high-performance, time-sensitive applications, and apparently Red Hat is feeling a bit threatened.
Note to Red Hat: this is open source, remember? Novell is shipping tested and enterprise-hardened Linux with real time capabilities. Just because Red Hat is again late to market (see enterprise Linux desktop, Xen virtualization, etc.) doesn’t mean Linux contains “beta code.” SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time is already run in production environments, providing real services to real customers like Thomson Financial. For the record, Novell has contributed a vast amount of code to real time Linux, as have many others, including MontaVista, Wind River and Concurrent. But don’t take our word for it. Check out the real time community mailing list to see who is making serious contributions to this open source product.
Red Hat often speaks of the value of the open source model because it encourages more and faster innovation. That’s what Novell is about with SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time and our other enterprise Linux offerings, to provide innovation to our customers in time to make a greater difference in their businesses. By claiming to be the source of all good things open source and Linux, Red Hat is doing neither the community nor its customers any favors. As the ZDNet.co.uk blogger noted, “It could all be sour grapes because Novell got there first …” That seems like sound insight.
On a related note, some sites have picked up on Red Hat’s comments and written headlines like “Novell accused of reselling Red Hat code.” Again, this is open source. It isn’t Red Hat code any more than the millions of lines of code contributed by Novell and others to dozens of open source projects belong to any one organization or individual. That’s the open source model … just like Red Hat used to talk about.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:05 am
[...] von der Linux-Community entwickelten Echtzeit-Erweiterungen für den Linux-Kernel 2.6.22. Novell reagierte auf Crenshaws stechenden Kommentar bereits: "Notiz an Red Hat: es ist Open Source, erinnert [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 7:15 am
[...] Barney from Novell PR posted a response to the claims that Novell has not contributed code. And points to the mailing list where you can [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Instead of just pointing out incorrect media reports – you might also want to note more that get it right.
(shameless self promotion) – http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3714366 – the Red Hat spokesperson I talked with sees the use of the real time patches as validation of the open source model itself.
Even more so..some of the Real Time technology in Novell’s release was originally done by MontaVista – who also had complementary things to say when I asked them about Novell (http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3713386).
December 5th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Its more that Novell was feeling threatened, and Novell saw the opportunity to jump ahead using Red Hat’s code ( not Novell’s) that Novell now claims, SuSE that contains the RH code is making Red Hat feel threatened ?. That is the most twisted thing !.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Good point, Sean … far more media reports get it right. As you can relate to, it was the “man bites dog” nature of these reports that prompted the post.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Both Parties have donated more code then ANY ONE PERSON HAS EVER. RedHat needs to grow up though and realize that all of you need to team up with a solution that helps everyone… not just yourselves.
Stop focusing on waring between each other and aim at whats ahead.
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Just a Guy who’s sick of the krap
December 5th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
GeorgeH,
The code is open source, not Red Hat’s. Its that simple.
December 5th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
No, It is Red Hat code contributed under a open source license. Novell is not contributing much to the real time open source community at all and taking Red Hat code and not even crediting them for all the work they have done.
December 6th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Actually, this sounds mostly like a Red Hat vs Novell fight.
I worry whether the community suffer from this because there will now be a shift of attention?
Don’t get me wrong, competition is fine, but often market needs can focus on short sight goals. Contributing code is fine, but it also takes people to understand all the code (more or less). And what if they are bound to enhance only i.e. Red Hat products and try to shield i.e. Novell (and indirectly, a broader community) too? (You can swap the names, I just want to point out a potential pitfall)
December 6th, 2007 at 9:44 am
[...] La respuesta de Novell no se hizo esperar, diciendo que “Red Hat se está sintiendo un poco amenazada” y recordándoles que “esto es Open Source” (!). [...]
December 6th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Now, it seems like Novell might have moved on from the original Concurrent kernel, or is that not the case? Has Novells origianl real-time partner been kicked to the curb?
December 7th, 2007 at 4:05 am
[...] Read more… SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Novell and Real Time Linux”, url: “http://weblog.loadfoo.web.id/2007/12/07/novell-and-real-time-linux/” }); [...]
December 7th, 2007 at 5:16 am
[...] La respuesta de Novell no se hizo esperar, diciendo que “Red Hat se está sintiendo un poco amenazada” y recordándoles que “esto es Open Source” (!). [...]
December 7th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Thanks for the kind words, Kevin.
I was surprised when Scott Crenshaw started his rant, and your response seems a good one.
I was also surprised that some people could misunderstand the open source model and report this as some sort of theft allegation. Still more education needed, I guess.
Keep me posted with future Novell developments.
Peter
December 7th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Andy … the partnership between Novell and Concurrent remains unchanged. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time ships with an enhanced open source kernel that contains the latest enterprise-hardened open source technologies that reduce system latency and improve predictability. Customers of SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time have the option to replace the standard open source real time kernel with an enhanced real time kernel from Concurrent. The enhanced real time kernel includes Concurrent’s real time processor shielding features and related upgrades. As open source real time technologies continue to evolve and mature, both companies will work together to deliver the best possible low latency platform for our customers.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Hi,
You mention “SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 10 for running high-performance, time-sensitive applications”. Have you really done performance benchmarking on real-time linux kernel? It is a known fact that the real-time kernel suffers from performance overhead when compared to the enterprise kernels. Claiming high-performance here without numbers to support them is kind of lame…
April 15th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is a lot more than I expected when I stumpled upon a link on SU telling that the info here is awesome. Thanks.