Bonum Certa Men Certa

Steinman on the Balcony Again, Offering Red Hat FUD

Flattering one's rival is commendable. It is not necessary however. At the very least, one should not refer to the rival, especially when representing a company. Personal opinions belong in Web logs, whereas journalists deliver what's perceived as careful statements from an official spokesman.

If you can't beat them, ridicule them...



I opine that Mr. Steinman keeps making the same mistake over and over again. Yet again he discredits Red Hat in an article which -- on the face of it -- lacks balance. Here is one among several 'cheap shots'.

"They're doing [Red Hat] something we've already done and they're doing it slightly differently," Justin Steinman, Novell's director of product marketing for Linux, told internetnews.com about RHX. "I'd actually submit they are doing it in a channel unfriendly way."


The article drips Red Hat vanity. The approach or attitude used here resembles that of Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison, who thrive in a pattern of mocking the competition, even undercutting it. The latter point, you see, could even be attributed to Novell's strategy.

If you can't beat them, get them in trouble...



Red Hat, among other Linux distributors, came under fire immediately after Novell's deal with Microsoft. Microsoft's CEO issued some implicit-yet-obvious threats. Novell, on the other hand, only came under scrutiny and opposition, which conveniently it dismisses and ignores (see interview with Nat Friedman). In that regard, Novell undercuts the the Linux competition while in fact assisting Microsoft. Novell does this by diluting the market and introducing new legal threats. It has become evident that Novell holds no strings. Novell is simply the marionette on Microsoft's stage. It is used as a weapon against its own goal, which is to spread GNU/Linux.

If you can't beat them, be kind to them instead...



Returning to Mr. Steinman, let's kindly ask him to refrain from making fun of Red Hat. His new partner (Microsoft) is also his biggest rival. If Novell wants market share, then it should escape this conflict of interests and stop Linux 'cannibalism'. Red Hat should be its friend, not its enemy. The vendors will be stronger as a team. I stressed this in the opensuse mailing lists back in November 2006. A thank-you from Red Hat staff ensued, but I was still on Novell's 'side' (community) at the time.

If you made a mistake, apologise...



Recently, Steinman said that Red Hat copies from Novell and that Red Hat does not contribute much to Linux. Where has that come from? Red Hat has been there forever. In Steinman's defence, he apologised, retracted, or blamed journalists for misinterpretation. But the envy lives on. This only leads to unfruitful flame wars. Why can't Novell make peace with Red Hat rather than defend their new partner, which has a long history of stabbing them time and time again in the back?

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day