05.17.07
Red Hat Does Well, But Linspire Needs a Gentle Shake
Despite all the FUD, Red Hat isn’t hurting. There’s no evidence to suggest that other Linux distributors are affected, with the exception of Linspire. We’ll get to that point at the end. Here are a couple of articles demonstrating that Red Hat, which represent much of strength of Linux in wealthiest of industries, is getting along just fine. Customers are simply not enticed by Novell’s ‘protection’ added value, which has no value at all. We are yet to see how far interoperability goes.
Red Hat is also making waves in Germany, which is the home of Novell SUSE Linux development. Pinchev said he could not even count the number of SUSE customers in Germany that have moved to Red Hat.
Red Hat is sticking to its Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 roadmap, because it’s still drawing in new customers and retaining the old ones…
Red Hat has been in this industry for quite some time, so it appears to know the rules of the game. It also know the business models better than Novell does. Linspire, on the other, being a somewhat controversial newcomer, appears confused. BoycottNovell reader, gpl1, points out that Linspire engages in coversations with its customers. Bear in mind that Linspire has at one point given Rob Enderle, whom I mentioned an hour ago, a virtual pat on the shoulder. This harmed its image.
On the other hand, Linspire has been getting close to Canonical and it even uses Ubuntu as its codebase, having replaced Debian. Mark Shuttleworth clearly explained to Matt Asay that he will not tolerate these ‘protection racket’ attempts. Perhaps Kevin Carmony (of Linspire) and Mark should speak.
Tread Carefully, Linspire, or Face the Consequences.
FUD is FUD. It is not actual risk. It’s imaginary and perceived risk and you seem like an innocent victim here. Please do not humiliate yourselves, Linspire. You are as safe as everybody else.
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.
Francis said,
May 17, 2007 at 2:39 am
With regard to RedHat: ….which is all great news. I have no idea why you tried to spin these two facts:
(i) Novell is doing great
(ii) RedHat is doing great
…as some type of negative press (sorry, I couldn’t resist). If other distributions aren’t being affected, then you’re tearing apart some of your own argument here.
It’s also simply not productive for you to argue that this customer patent coverage or interoperability is “useless” when it’s a very clear demand from a lot of many Novell enterprise customers.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 17, 2007 at 2:49 am
Thanks, Francis. I’ll address your points in turn.
>> (i) Novell is doing great
We shall soon find out.
http://boycottnovell.com/2007/05/02/novl-financial-results-at-months-end/
( “Novell to report on May 30th” )
I prefer not to speculate, so I did not say Novell is doing badly. I just stated facts and quoted articles.
>> (ii) RedHat is doing great
Their sales were up 41% in last quarter’s report. Novell has declined to file financial results for quite some time.
>> It’s also simply not productive for you to
>> argue that this customer patent coverage or interoperability is
>> “useless” when it’s a very clear demand from a lot of many
>> Novell enterprise customers.
Is it? Novell would LOVE people to believe this (and so would Microsoft). Have a look:
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2007/03/microsoftnovell.html
Francis said,
May 17, 2007 at 5:35 am
> Their sales were up 41% in last quarter’s report. Novell has declined to file financial results for quite some time.
So from all the current information, they are doing pretty well.
> Is it? Novell would LOVE people to believe this (and so would Microsoft).
Yes, it is. Your argument (and the text you provided) fails because it’s a non sequitur. One customer not caring for it hardly necessitates something about all the others.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 17, 2007 at 5:45 am
I’ve been watching this pattern. Susan Hauser does this consistently.