11.18.08
Novell Information, in the Words of Anivar Aravind
IN THREE previous posts, we have covered the events which took place in India. In chronological order:
- Friendly ‘Boycott Novell’ Supportes Robbed of Voice
- Even Microsoft Chooses Red Hat Over Novell’s SUSE
- Novell Removed from List of National Free Software Conference Sponsors?
There are many accusations of misinformation out there, so critics might wish to use as reference the words of Anivar Aravind, who was there on the scene and was also removed by the organisers, by force (an unprecedented act, according to Richard Stallman). Anivar should know the story best and he delves into the finer details.
While mailing lists becomes a play ground to execute Goebbelsian tactics, I feel i need to scribble the reason & step by step incidents in our campaign in National Conference on Free Software.
[...]
Novell is the Only GNU/linux company name mentioned in the Conference. since it is organised with the silent support of CPIM (You can understand it simply by going through schedule) a lot of people from Employee Unions, Students Unions, teachers Unions etc were participated in the event. Our intention is to protect these people being misguided by Novell. Novell was mainly promoting their fork of OpenOffice 3.0 (after in which they implemented notorious OOXML and forked after OO3 moved to LGPLv3)& SUSE in their stall. Most of the participants in the Conference were newbies and Novell is the only GNU/Linux distro widely promoted in the exhibition. Our protest is not targeted at Organizers or Novell. It was just a way to spread awareness on Novell’s evil trends through the posters to protect new users being misguided.
Here is the information which was distributed [PDF] by the activists. It encourages no hate; it merely informs.
It’s funny enough that Novell, a proprietary software company at heart, is attending and striving to steal the thunder in Free software conferences. It’s not an isolated example because Novell does the same thing in Europe where the walls get ‘draped’ in Novell and SUSE logos. They plaster their identity and footprint where they do not belong.
InfoWorld (IDG) has just published an article with me and therein I explained why Microsoft’s similar behaviour (infiltrating FOSS events) is mostly a PR charade. It’s also funny to see Microsoft attending Ajax conferences. By refusing to support SVG Microsoft has held back Web development for ages. It is an enemy of advanced Web technologies because it threatens its desktop applications and makes Windows more obsolete.
Here is another audacious article that mentions Novell, Microsoft, and intellectual property.
In intellectual property, all the noise about the illegitimacy of open source, how Microsoft found its code in Linux and other open source projects, has withered. Microsoft partnered with Novell, and skilled programmers within Microsoft’s own ranks pointed out how much open source code is developed on Windows, and how much open source code interoperates with Windows. And everyone saw how, if Windows Server 2008 is to have a place in the data center, it will have to work with open source code. Proprietary software companies from Citrix to IBM to Sun proved their faith in community-built code by buying open source vendors.
Boycott Novell has gained a lot more validation over the past week with links from major press outlets like InformationWeek, ComputerWorld, ZDNet, and Slashdot. Proponents of the information we present here might therefore find it easier to support and defend. █
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.
Gentoo User said,
November 18, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Judging from the comments on the Slashdot article (which is a far larger community than yours), I’d say you are far from being validated, except with twitter, maybe
But I was going to ask if you were planning on offering an apology and retraction on the “bribed by Microsoft” articles you wrote, where the journalists you attacked had the courtesy of clarifying the issue.
Just wondering, since the last time I asked you accused me of having “sunk too low” or something like that, but you never did answer the question.
BTW, twitter posted with four different accounts that I can see on that Slashdot story, and there’s a highly-moderated post there that revealed to most /.’ers the fact that you and him are working together (of course it’s also a bit ad hominem but whatever). You might want to ask him to stop doing the sockpuppet thing when he’s defending you or posting links to this site. Just a thought. I wonder what IDG would think if they knew… not to mention the supreme irony of IDG publishing that, since you spend all your time calling them shills and claiming they sold out to Microsoft. But I guess when they publish something that suits you, you’re OK with it.
Note: comment arrived from a witch hunter that does not even use GNU/Linux.
Jose_X said,
November 19, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Gentoo User, I’m interested in the details but was not able to find the article you mentioned. Was it the 451 journalist one? Have a link?
>> You might want to ask him to stop doing the sockpuppet thing when he’s defending you or posting links to this site.
Why doesn’t Twitter just sign a single name on every comment if he(?) is forced to use a different login name? Or else post as anonymous. I just don’t see the point (and he might have a good reason) to giving people ammunition. Just think of how much quieter it would be with less (perhaps justified) noise about sockpuppet this and sockpuppet that. Or is Twitter taking advantage of the attention this distraction brings to BN?
BTW, BN was a major part of the topic of this article: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/18/47NF-microsoft-novell_1.html [It's funny. I meant to say at one point: and I doubt very many of them are unpaid. Later, I changed opinion; however, no retraction was needed because I actually had written unintentionally that most were probably unpaid: "and I doubt very few of them are unpaid".]
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 19, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Oh, look at that.
…looks like some not-so-Gentoo ‘user’ has already posted some libelous comment in InfoWorld. it’s hard to attack messages, is it not? Better to target messengers.
Gentoo User (and proud of it) said,
November 19, 2008 at 3:50 pm
– Oh, look at that.
Jesus… I commented on your point about being ‘validated’ but I never even clicked on that link and didn’t even read that article, I just noticed you mentioned IGN and I know you’ve been claiming they are “shills”. Just like the journalists *you* smeared. Are you so far gone in your paranoia that you’re actually accusing me of posting there? Which of the negative comments there do you figure I posted, and where is your proof? And you obviously have no problem with Jose_X posting there that BoycottNovell is the SUPER BEST SITE IN THE WORLD, do you? That’s perfectly OK, right? Can you also tell us which of the positive comments were posted by you or your friend twitter? At least Jose_X posts with his handle and seems like a nice guy, not like the rest of your posse.
What exactly do you think I have to hide, here? Can you please (for the nth time) point to the “smears” I have perpetrated on you?
Note: comment arrived from a witch hunter that does not even use GNU/Linux.
Gentoo User (and proud of it) said,
November 19, 2008 at 4:07 pm
@Jose_X: I believe Roy smeared the journalists he claims were “bribed” by Microsoft because they received a laptop with Windows 7 for review. At least three or four of them actually posted to explain what was happening to him, but he conveniently ignored them. I can’t be bothered to look for the specific posts, sorry.
As for twitter, if you’ve been on Slashdot at all the last year or so you’d know why he does what he does. Look at pretty much any thread where he is involved (with one or ten accounts) and you’ll see that his claims of being targeted by one or two people who work for Microsoft is preposterous at best. He was basically chased out of there, and I guess that’s why he’s here now.
And I just read the InfoWorld article today, after Roy told me I had posted there. He has access to the IDG server logs, apparently.
BTW, among all the crap here (more apparent every day) you seem like a nice guy and more along the lines of what I consider an honest FOSS advocate. Me, I’m just a witch hunter who works for Microsoft. Still waiting for my check though
Note: comment arrived from a witch hunter that does not even use GNU/Linux.
Jose_X said,
November 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I hate to see people that back FOSS fight over side issues when there is so much important material on the table. If ending this will mean someone will have to dig out and collect links to make their case, I hope this happens. If no one takes up the offer, I hope we can move on. I’m assuming everyone here really does care about protecting FOSS and hopefully sees value in its growth, but perhaps we disagree over what are good or bad moves on our part.
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 19, 2008 at 7:54 pm
RMS mailed me an hour ago and they will assist our cause.