04.04.08
More Hostile Fire Over Novell CEO Interview (Corrected)
A few days ago we wrote about Jim Zemlin’s interview with Ron Hovsepian. Glyn Moody characterised this as journalistic scum (see corrections at the bottom) criticised it because the interview contained nothing but fluff and no grilling was actually involved.
It turns out that Jim Zemlin was not the only victim whose role in the interview (seemingly more of a setup or staged act) led to gentle insults. Watch this reaction in ComputerWorld, which came under some fire by at least one reader.
While training is important, Hovsepian explained, it has to be balanced against the financial demands confronting Novell. “The cycle time is the biggest issue,” he said. “The brutality of the pressure the company has to operate under in 90 days is what drives us.”
I was taken to task by one reader for letting Hovsepian get away with that comment.
“I am greatly disappointed that you report without any critical analysis what the employers wish to propagate,” he wrote. “What utter BS! It takes them more than 90 days just to make a decision! It’s nothing to do with the ‘pressure’ in the marketplace, but everything to do with hiring the cheapest H-1B peasant programmer at the lowest price.”
Look back at our previous post about the economic downturn. Novell has actually been sending jobs abroad to reduce operation/running costs, but so have other large companies including Intel, Microsoft and Dell (the ‘unholy trinity’ of kickbacks). █
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.
Glyn Moody said,
April 5, 2008 at 1:21 am
Thanks for the link.
Just to clarify and point: as you say, I thought the Novell interview very light, but the “scum” I was referring to was journalists like me, who were not afraid to ask awkward questions.
Roy Schestowitz said,
April 5, 2008 at 1:50 am
Oops. Sorry about this misinterpretation. I glanced at your text too quickly. I’ll correct the text.