“Whether or not the GPL 3’s controversial ‘grandfather’ clause
ever sees the light of day, it’s sure to carry impacts of one sort
or another, not just on Novell and Microsoft, but also on
competitors, business customers, and smaller Linux toolmakers. Just
about any way you flip the coin, somebody’s bound to get
short-changed (or to feel that way, anyhow).“If Novell does not get grandfathered into GPL 3 compliance,
Novell’s SUSE Linux will turn into a ‘fork’ of Linux, said Bruce
Perens, primary author of the original GPL GNU software
contract.“And not too surprisingly, many in the industry concur that the
forking of SUSE could bode badly for customers, smaller developers,
and Linux as a whole…”