Jeremy Allison Has Resigned from Novell to Protest MS Patent Deal

The legendary Jeremy Allison (of Samba fame) has resigned from Novell in protest over the Microsoft-Novell patent agreement, which he calls “a mistake” which will be “damaging to Novell’s success in the future.” His main issue with the deal, though, is “that even if it does not violate the letter of the licence, it violates the intent of the GPL licence the Samba code is released under, which is to treat all recipients of the code equally.” He leaves the company at the end of this month.

It’s great to see someone stick to their conviction, especially in this situation. It’s Novells loss, but apparently Googles gain.