06.26.08
Ian Bruce (Not Lowry): Microsoft/Novell PR?
Marketing: an art of twisting facts, sometimes lying
A few month ago, Bruce Lowry left Novell. It happened around the same time that the company’s General Counsel, Joseph LaSala, left as well. A week after the departure of a Vice President, the belated replacement of Bruce Lowry finally arrives.
Quick, late introductions – I’m Ian Bruce, the new director of PR at Novell. I’ve taken over from Bruce Lowry (being called ‘Bruce’ is a requirement for the job), who held the position for over 8 years and did amazing work driving visibility and awareness for Novell.
Mr. Bruce will need to get used to preaching about the wonderful relationships between Microsoft and GNU/Linux (or Novell), which essentially means lying . Mr. de Icaza could kindly teach him.
Speaking of PR, be careful what you read about SUSE and Novell at the moment. Novell recruits boosters and it also has talking heads in the media. █
“Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand.”
–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO
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.
David Gerard said,
June 26, 2008 at 2:40 pm
In my capacity as a volunteer media contact, I have specifically advised the Wikimedia Foundation that the word “excited” is terminal corporate speak and means the speaker needs to be sent for urgent deprogramming and rehumanisation.