05.15.07
Novell’s CEO Denies Patent Infringement in Linux, Eyes Acquisitions
In an update to a Reuters story, Novell’s CEO, Ron Hovsepian, expresses his disagreement and take on Microsoft’s claims.
Novell Chief Executive and President Ronald Hovsepian said Linux did not infringe on any patents. He told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York on Tuesday that the deal with Microsoft was focused on not suing each other’s customers.
In another new item, Hovsepian talks about Novell’s deal with SAP (Microsoft made a SAP deal on the very same day). He also says that he is eying some acquisition.
“I would like to be acquiring in a couple of markets. Anything in the Linux market, systems and resources management and in the identity business,” Hovsepian said.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.