05.29.08
Novell: Cannibalisation is Growth
Novell accountants plays with buckets
It has been a while since we last mentioned Novell’s admission of cooking the books. In the past, we also explained the Novell business dilemma and its sales cannibalisation.
To give the gist of the story: old products from Novell are moving to an underlying platform that is Linux, OES being just one example, so Novell can then claim a rise in its Linux business. But at whose expense? It’s a rhetorical question.
“…old products from Novell are moving to an underlying platform that is Linux, OES being just one example, so Novell can then claim a rise in its Linux business.”Novell paints a deceiving picture that some trade journal will buy without caution. Microsoft too relies on such tricks and Cringely wrote about that easier this month. Neither Novell’s nor Microsoft’s future seems all that bright from the inside. Remember: PR lies.
As usual, Novell’s latest press release about financial results for this quarter only empahsises figures that may look good, but it hides the rest. Novell tells you what to see. Staff reductions, for example, are unaccounted for.
Matt Asay misses the point. Again. He passes the PR message as though PR does not lie (it almost always does). How quickly he forgot what Novell, his former employer, had done. Novell must be proud. It sells an illusion and finds buyers in the media. █
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.