07.25.07
Quote of the Day: “Don’t Let Novell Carry Your Flag”
James Gaskin of NetworkWorld has courageously uttered the following words:
One word of advice, Linux people: don’t let Novell carry your flag. They have, historically, shown the ability to mis-manage and mis-market the best products in computing down to a footnote in the history books. If you rely on Novell for marketing leadership, put on your lemming suits now and hurry and finish your new Harry Potter novel. Following Novell means you will have outstanding technical products sold by vendors out standing in fields, all by themselves, wondering why the customers are back in town. Pick a new leader, any other leader, and shed the red of Novell for someone 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.
John Drinkwater said,
July 26, 2007 at 5:01 am
I’m worried that some people will read the article as “Novell, the Linux leader”, even though they are one of many…
Roy Schestowitz said,
July 26, 2007 at 5:19 am
I have always been under the impression that Red hat championed Linux, IBM was a prominent funder, and a lot of the rest only arrived later (including Novell’s acquisition of SuSE, which was assisted by IBM).