Bonum Certa Men Certa

How Novell Learned to Stop Worrying About Microsoft FUD and Started Embracing It

A reader has just brought to our attention what he calls "an interesting E-mail sent from Jack Messman to Novell partners complaining and attempting to correct Microsoft FUD." This FUD was based on the Yankee Group, largely known as a Microsoft shill [1, 2, 3, 4].



We append this 2004 E-mail at the bottom. Parts of this E-mail can be found here (the original is no longer available, except for in Google cache). Ron Hovsepian signed this message as well and worth noting is the short section under "Indemnification". It states:

"Mr. Ballmer claims that it is rare for open source software to provide customers with any indemnification at all. The Novell€® Linux Indemnification Program has been in place for quite some time. It offers indemnification for copyright infringement claims made by third parties against registered Novell customers. Novell has also placed its considerable patent portfolio squarely behind its customers, to defend against those who might assert patents against open source products marketed, sold or supported by Novell."

Messman actually tried to exploit SCO FUD several years ago. Moreover, Novell did not denounce Microsoft for its FUD assault on GNU/Linux. It only gently explained its patent deal with Microsoft at the time. In other words, Novell's days as a FUD fighter are over. Novell tore down all its anti-Microsoft FUD pages from Novell.com just shortly after the deal with Microsoft has been signed. Novell is now exploiting Microsoft's FUD and harnesses Microsoft patents as a perceptual advantage over other vendors of GNU/Linux.

In other news that's explored by Groklaw at the moment, SCO, Norris and possibly the Carlyle Group with which he is associated [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] are being challenged by Novell's lawyers. Here are the two articles about it (so far):

1. Novell Objects to SCO's Request for More Time; Suggests There May Be No SNCP Deal

So what is SCO after in seeking an extension? Novell suggests SCO is maybe seeking to pressure Novell into agreeing to a quick appeal, before the arbitration is finished, or perhaps they are looking for an exit strategy, or they are looking for a litigation advantage, none being reasons for granting them the extension. Novell is quite clear with the court, stating unambiguously that there is no way it can properly grant an open-ended extension. It lays out all the cases for the judge.


2. Crimson Capital LLC et al v. Spartan Group Holding, Stephen Norris, et al

When Novell suggested the other day to the Bankruptcy Court handling SCO's bankruptcy that the Stephen Norris deal SCO announced (then withdrawn with a promise to make it better) might be bogus, we naturally wondered if there was anything new that Novell knows that caused them to say that.

Then today, a comment was left by stats-for-all that there is a lawsuit against Norris alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, shareholder oppression, and (in the alternative) unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel, Crimson Capital LLC et al v. The Spartan Group Holding, LLC et al. It was originally filed in Supreme Court, County of New York, in New York State, Case Number: 601873-08, at the end of July. That's not "supreme" as in highest court in the state, by the way. It's where you begin a civil action of this type in New York State. I have no idea why they name it that way, but they do.


SCO keeps harping about a $100 million cash infusion that it may receive from partners of Bill Gates in the middle east. Remember who else has received a $100 million cash infusion very recently? Directly from Microsoft even? It's the "kill Red Hat" budget and it's slush funds.




NUI Newsletter - November 2004



Letter from Jack Messman, Novell CEO

You may have seen a letter from Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, which was sent to all Windows customers in an attempt to slow the flood of migration to Linux. Novell would like to make you aware that the points made by Mr. Ballmer in that letter include only those statements in its paid studies that reflect most positively on Microsoft when comparing their products to Linux.

Novell would like to share some additional facts with you that will shed some light on the bigger picture.

Total Cost of Ownership

Mr. Ballmer quotes selectively from Windows-favorable comments in a Yankee Group report ("Linux, UNIX and Windows TCO Comparison"). However — that's not the whole story. That same report also states the following:

- "...corporate customers report Linux provides businesses with excellent performance, reliability, ease of use and security. Yes, Linux is a viable alternative to UNIX and Windows. In addition, Linux is the most serious competition to Microsoft's dominance in the server operating system market to date."

- "The ability to modify and customize the Linux source code affords customers the most intriguing possibilities for custom application development. This ability stands in stark contrast to the closed or proprietary nature of the Windows operating system.

- "In summary, the Yankee Group's TCO survey found that Linux does offer compelling cost savings, economies of scale and technical advantages, as many a satisfied user will attest."

Security

Mr. Ballmer brings up the issue of security, which understandably is much on his mind. He cites Microsoft's recent investments in security research, process improvements, and customer education, and boasts of Microsoft's structured software engineering process that is designed to make software more secure.

The truth is, Open Source uses a structured process, but it is definitely different from the one Microsoft utilizes. And to tell the truth, it seems to be working much better.

Evans Data Corporation, in their Linux Development Survey dated Summer, 2004 shows:

- Ninety two percent of survey respondents indicated that their Linux systems have never been infected with a virus Fewer than 7% said that they'd been the victims of three of more hacker intrusions.

- On the other hand, the process Microsoft utilizes clearly has been inadequate at protecting its customers from costly malicious attacks.

For example, two weeks ago Microsoft released a mammoth patch pack to address more than 20 vulnerabilities, most of them critical. Several of them, in Excel, Internet Explorer, and Exchange, could enable mass automated worm attacks.

In a story

that appeared in Computer Business Review Online, Drew Copley, senior research engineer at eEye Digital Security Inc, said that it took Microsoft 71 days to patch the Zip problem after being notified, but another vulnerability, a less-severe privilege escalation problem in Windows, took the firm 408 days to issue a patch for, though it was "stealth-patched" in XP SP2.

"They can do better than that in my opinion. Even when they are fast there are often variants out by the time the patch comes out," he said. "I think that's a very important criticism to make."

Indemnification

Mr. Ballmer claims that it is rare for open source software to provide customers with any indemnification at all. The Novell€® Linux Indemnification Program has been in place for quite some time. It offers indemnification for copyright infringement claims made by third parties against registered Novell customers. Novell has also placed its considerable patent portfolio squarely behind its customers, to defend against those who might assert patents against open source products marketed, sold or supported by Novell.

Bottom Line

Linux can deliver a lower TCO, it is arguably more secure than Windows, and the combination of Novell's patent policies and the indemnification program offers for its open source products provides protection for customers who wish to make the leap to Linux. We invite you to read the full reports for yourself, and see why Linux is gaining more and more fans every day.

Linux is the fastest growing operating system, used from desktops to the most demanding data centers. According to IDC reports, Linux enjoyed year-to-year growth of nearly 50% in 2003. By 2007, they estimate that 30% of all servers will run Linux, and they project a 44% compound annual growth rate in Linux desktops.

According to an Information Week survey, Linux is now the dominant manifestation of open source. Nearly 70 percent of 420 business-technology professionals surveyed already use the operating system. Three-quarters of those using Linux on some of their companies' servers chose it for its performance capabilities and reliability.

If the world were as Microsoft states, Linux would not be the world's fastest growing operating system, ISVs would not be writing to it in ever increasing numbers, partners would not be looking to sell it, and Microsoft would not have put a revenue caution related to Linux in their latest SEC filing. These, however, are the true facts.

This information and much more is available on our website at www.novell.com/linux/truth. We encourage you to examine the facts in their entirety and see if Linux is right for you and your business.

Sincerely, Jack Messman Ronald W. Hovsepian

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
 
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead
Happy Independence Day to Our American Readers
Maybe tomorrow will be a good opportunity to explain to American people - in terms of concepts, not brands - which tools respect their independence
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Linuxsecurity, and Google News Getting Even Worse (More Slopfarms Added Which Attack Linux With Bruce-Force SPAM)
Google News is part of the same problem
Links 03/07/2025: More Cuts and Cancellations at Microsoft Revealed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/07/2025: Favourite Child and Launching WikiGem
Links for the day
GNU/Linux is Replacing Microsoft Windows. But We Need to Eradicate Microsoft, It's a Hub of Crime.
I have been writing about Microsoft since the 1990s when I was in school
Mystery Surrounding the PCLinuxOS Sites and PCLinuxOS Magazine
Let's hope this isn't something major
People and Companies Do Learn Some Lessons From Their Mistakes (Stubborn Ones Don't)
Brett Wilson LLP is an example of one that would rather drown in mistakes
Links 03/07/2025: 'Hey Hi' Slop Ridiculed Some More and Microsoft's Layoffs Tally for 2025 Reaches About 29,000 in Just 6 Months (Almost 5,000 Per Month)
Links for the day
Microsoft Staff Harassing Women, Strangling Women, Telling Women to Kill Themselves and Worse? Not a Problem!
Two women have left Brett Wilson LLP
The Slopfarms Are Losing the Plot (and Google is Propping Up Rogue Sites)
Google is part of the attack on the Web, on information, and on technology
New BetaNews Realises There's No Potential or Future in Slopfarms, Prior Editor Wayne Williams is Back
They realise that slop (so-called "AI") cannot replace humans
Claims That Microsoft Looks for Staff That Works More and Gets Paid Less (or Can Only Code by Grabbing Other People's Code, Under the Guise of "AI")
People can form their own opinion
Richard Stallman Was Right About Reasons Not to Use Microsoft
last updated 2017
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 02, 2025
Gemini Links 03/07/2025: No to Cloudflare and Small Web July
Links for the day