11.27.07
Quick Mention: The Blog That Was Mistakenly Cited
Several times in the past we linked to OPSEast Blog (and not on a Saturday, either). It’s becoming clearer now that it’s a peripheral service/advocacy blog for Novell, run by some of its own people.
We ought to be more careful and at least aware of this in the future. The blog has published comparisons that put down Red Hat at one point, so rivalry is part of its ’service’. Innocent Web surfers will probably fail to recognise the information source, so it seems to be crossing a sensitive that betrays trust. As we stated before, we haven’t any affiliation with anyone or anything whatsoever. Unlike this:
OPSEast was created to put articles, howto’s and other links together for customers and employees of Novell’s SUSE/OPS (Open Platform Solutions) business unit.
Created and run by employees and partners, the team loves getting the word out and interacting with customers.
It would be valuable to keep track of the affiliation of various seemingly-innocent blogs. IPWars, for example, is said to be quietly associated with (or supportive of) SCO. Microsoft has a far greater level of ‘operation’ in that regard. It’s disgusting. █
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.