Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (username: dmr, September 8, 1941 — October 8/9, 2011) was an American computer scientist notable for developing C and for having influence on other programming languages, as well as operating systems such as Multics and Unix. He received the Turing Award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology 1998 on April 21, 1999. Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007. [Read on]

Summary: UNIX in the Czech Republic amid Westernisation

According to the following Cablegate cable, “The CERGE-EI library [...] has been a depository library of the World Bank. Computer facilities include a UNIX lab with high-capacity works stations and several PC labs. The ratio of computers to students is among the highest in Europe.”

It is all in ¶10 of the following cable.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 001415 

SIPDIS 

USAID FOR GEORGE LIKE, DCHA/PVC-ASHA 

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON [Economic Conditions], EZ [Czech Republic]
SUBJECT: CZECH REPUBLIC:  STRONG SUPPORT FOR (CERGE-EI)
CENTER FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND GRADUATE EDUCATION --
ECONOMIC INSTITUTE 

REF: STATE 159943 

¶1.  SUMMARY:  Post strongly supports ASHA financial
assistance for CERGE-EI, the leading economics doctoral
program in the region, fully-accredited in both the Czech
Republic and the United States.  CERGE-EI has the best
economics library in the country, containing a wealth of
American texts and journals that teach and promote
market-based economics.  END SUMMARY. 

--------------------------------------------- -----------
Demonstration Center for American Ideas and Practices in
Education
--------------------------------------------- -----------
¶2.  CERGE-EI was founded in 1991 "to meet the post-communist
countries' critical need for economists, to educate a new
economic leadership for the region in the region."  CERGE-EI
provides an "american-style" education and is accredited by
the New York State Board of Regents.  Its four-year doctoral
program consists of two-years of course work followed by
two-years of supervised dissertation research.  The working
language of the institution is English, and CERGE-EI
encourages its students to conduct part of their dissertation
research at partner institutions in Western Europe and North
America. 

¶3.  CERGE-EI's English Department is unique among major
doctoral programs in economics, and provides students with
the skills necessary to successfully participate in economic
research and publication at the highest levels.  As
increasing percentage of students in doctoral programs in the
U.S. come from non-English speaking backgrounds, visitors to
CERGE-EI frequently observe that the innovative program at
CERGE-EI and the integral role English instruction plays in
its doctoral program provide a model that should be adopted
at their own institutions. 

¶4. The Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI draw
distinguished economists from top U.S. universities:  Joseph
Stiglitz from Columbia University; Philippe Aghio of Harvard
University; Orley Ashenfelter, Richard Quandt and Henry
Farber of Princeton University; Jan Svenar and Jan Kemtna of
the University of Michigan;  Gerard Roland, Michelle White
and Roger Gordon from the University of California system. 

--------------------------------------------- -----
Importance and Quality of CERGE-EI in the Field of Education
--------------------------------------------- -----
¶5.  One of CERGE-EI's primary goals is to educate future
economic leaders of countries in transition throughout the
world.  The student profile is as follows:  60 percent men;
40 percent women; 25 percent from Russia, Ukraine and
Belarus; 24 percent from the Czech Republic, 20 percent from
the Balkans; 18 percent from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia; 11
percent other former Soviet states; 2 percent from the rest
of the world.  80 percent of CERGE-EI graduates are employed
in the region.  The average grade point average of entering
students is above 3.6 (out of 4.0). 

¶6.  A glance at CERGE-EI alumni profile speaks to the
importance and quality of its program; 38 percent of CERGE-EI
graduates find employment in the public sector (ministries,
central banks and international organizations), 25 percent in
university teaching, and 37 percent in the private sector.
Graduates include economists at International Financial
Institutions (IFIs) such as the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development.  Czech National Bank Governor Zdenek Tuma is a
former CERGE-EI faculty member.  Graduates in the private
sector are employed by private banks Citibank Komercni Banka)
and consulting firms (e.g. McKinsey & Company, the Boston
Consulting Group).  Graduates teach in Universities in the
region, in Western Europe and in the U.S. (e.g., Tilburg
University in the Netherlands, University of Iowa).  When the
World Bank commissioned a major study calling form reform of
Czech capital markets, CERGE-EI professors joined the study
team to provide local expertise and CERGE-EI students were
employed to conduct data analysis. 

¶7.  Recognizing the critical impact of economic training on
the success of reform, CERGE-EI offered to provide doctoral
study in Prague for two Iraqi students.  As such, CERGE-EI
has been at the crux of transition countries' struggle to
from a totalitarian, centrally-planned economies to market
democracies.  In the words of CERGE-EI, "experience in the
post-communist world has demonstrated that early intervention
to establish an effective higher education system is a
critical component of supporting the enormous political and
social changes necessary to build democracy and prosperity." 

--------------------------------------------- ----------
Competence in Professional Skills, Sound Management and
Financial Practices
--------------------------------------------- ----------
¶8.  CERGE-EI is a tax exempt (IRS 501C3 status) institution
subject to U.S. audits.  Its 2003 budget was USD 3.0 million,
excluding grant-finance expenditures on research and other
programmatic activities.  2003 income sources break down as
follows: 

26.7 percent Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic;
22.1 percent affiliate Charles University;
13.5 percent Corporate Donations;
14.4 percent International Organizations;
8 percent Earned Income including Grant Overheads;
7.7 percent Individual Donations;
6.7 percent Interest & Endowment Income;
0.9 percent Foundation & Government grants. 

2003 expenses breakdown as follows:
26.4 percent Permanent Faculty;
18.4 percent Student Stipends & Mobility;
12.7 percent Physical plant & Building renovation.
10 percent library;
8.6 percent support staff
7.1 percent materials & supplies;
6.4 percent Development & Public Relations;
4.4 percent Senior Part-time faculty;
4.3 percent Computer Department;
1.7 percent seminar & research support 

-----------
The Library
-----------
¶9.  Established in 1992, it is simply the best economics
library in the Czech Republic, and one of the best in Central
and Eastern Europe.  Econoffs toured the library and were
impressed by the number of recognizable U.S. economic texts
(used for introductory and intermediate micro- and
macro-economic courses) and U.S. economic journals.  The
estimated number of registered users of the library is
currently about 2000.  The library contains 25,000 books and
270 periodicals, including journals published by:  American
Economic Association, American Statistical Association,
Brookings Institutions, University of Chicago Press,
University of Wisconsin Press, MIT Press, Cornell University.
Over 600 full-text on-line journals are available in the
electronic library.. 

¶10.  The CERGE-EI library contains THE most extensive and
up-to-date economics collection in Central and Eastern
Europe, with over 80,000 printed items and subscribe to over
250 periodicals and electronic databases.  One of the first
open-stack facilities in the region, the CERGE-EI library is
widely used by the general public as well as by students from
other institutions.  Since December 1994, it has been a
depository library of the World Bank.  Computer facilities
include a UNIX lab with high-capacity works stations and
several PC labs.  The ratio of computers to students is among
the highest in Europe. 

------------------------
Local & Embassy Comments
------------------------
¶11. Econoffs conducted interviews with four local contacts
from government and business sectors, as well as with
locally-hired staff at the Embassy who interact with
CERGE-EI.  CERGE-EI is a highly regarded institution,
particularly known for its independent, intellectual and
theoretical academic content, and with the best library in
the country.   Any criticism of CERGE-EI tends to be its
"over" emphasis on theory versus applied economics.  In June
2005, the Ambassador commended CERGE-EI for its continued
leadership in higher education and success in building
partnerships with American and other international university
and training programs.  In the Embassy's efforts to support
Czech-American cultural and educational exchanges, we are
continuing our partnership with CERGE-EI through the
Embassy's Office of Public Affairs.CABANISS

UNIX in general is hardly mentioned in Cablegate (only 3 occurrences in a quarter of a million cables). █

Summary: Bad signs appear as Attachmate puts SUSE aside but continues to ‘hoard’ UNIX rights, dissociating one’s importance to the other

ATTACHMATE has been ensuring that it can maintain its status as a proprietary software company. Executives who were committed to a different agenda were mostly removed, expelled, or simply left. Mono developers were fired without exception and SUSE was relocated and relegated to Germany, where developers are now dependent on funding from Microsoft. What is actually left in Attachmate which is “open source”? Even Vibe was axed as we had predicted all along; it was in part based on Free software from Google (Wave).

Attachmate, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is putting new people in charge and the Deccan Herald (insisting on just Internet Explorer or Netscape even in 2011) speaks about the spinoff called SUSE, which is basically partly funded by Microsoft now (to help put Microsoft tax on GNU/Linux servers). Attachmate is also the ‘owner’ of early UNIX copyrights, according to this latest report which adds:

“Novell’s board of directors adopted a resolution approving the sale, which specifically mentioned the copyrights were to be retained by Novell,” the judges said in the opinion.

This was the second time the appeals court ruled on this case. In the first appeal it reversed a lower-court ruling in Novell’s favor and sent the case back. After a two-week trial, the jury ruled Novell owned the copyrights. SCO appealed.

A spokeswoman for Linden, Utah-based SCO, Chantell Ferrin, didn’t immediately reply to messages seeking comment.

There is also a derailed analysis behind an apparent paywall at Lexology. We are still not sure what Attachmate will do with these copyrights. It is not as though the company has any commitment to Free software or to UNIX. Given the amount of time and money Novell has invested in this case, it is rather unlikely that UNIX will just be left there to rot and bring no revenue to Attachmate, even if through a sale. Unlike Novell, Attachmate has no need to keep up appearance and keep UNIX away from enemies of Linux. Will these be sold to IBM maybe? Or perhaps to some foe of Red Hat? This is a question that has generally bothered us since 2007 and we wrote about it many times before. We must pay attention to Attachmate’s actions and statements. █

THERE IS news this week about SCO’s defeat which Sean Michael Kerner, Pamela Jones and others who are familiar with the case have covered. Well, as noted in Slashdot, Attachmate has reaffirmed its grip over UNIX, which basically means that nothing has changed and the virtual assets remain where they are arguably safer. The coverage from Utah’s press (sometimes pro-SCO) says that SCO lost the copyright case in this age where emphasis is being put on patents in the fight against GNU/Linux and Android.

A federal appeals court has upheld a jury verdict and a lower court ruling in a trial that found Novell Inc. — not The SCO Group — owned the copyrights to the Unix computer software operating system before 1995.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury’s verdict from last year in a lawsuit filed by SCO in 2004 as part of its broader efforts to sue IBM over alleged use of Unix code as a model for parts of the rival Linux operating system.

The court upheld the verdict against SCO, saying “ample evidence in the record supported the jury’s verdict and Novell’s position.” It also upheld rulings in Novell’s favor by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart, who presided over the trial.

This is all very nice. However, to lose sight of the fact that Novell is now being used by Attachmate (via SUSE) to pay Microsoft for GNU/Linux regardless of copyrights would not be wise. The main problem has shifted along with Microsoft’s strategy.

The Register joined YouTube on the 9th of May (2011) and it reminds of us those ads disguised as “content” which it did back in the days for Novell and Microsoft A day or so ago it uploaded this video which characteristically spins a patent deal as collaboration. Viewer should beware and see if they can spot the spin. Novell is not the “good guy”. Like in many wars, both sides can be “bad guys”, ass Zinn (a former bombardier) once explained. █

ATTACHMSFT has not been saying much about its plans. It drops some clues every now and then, but none of this amounts to contractual commitment. SUSE’s managers mentioned they would support Mono, but the following article contradicts it somewhat. “New Suse director swears off Mono,” is how our reader describes it, quoting:

Brauckmann confirms that SUSE is no longer investing in the project, but quickly added that SUSE would be supporting any commercial customers using Mono that have support contracts. “The rest of the SUSE roadmap stays intact,” Brauckmann says. “No other products will be changed.”

Groklaw is more active than ever, especially in the News Picks section where Pamela Jones is very omnipresent (and who can blame her? It is hard to let SCO and Microsoft just carry on their attacks without immediate rebuttals). She quotes from this article, concluding: “This is the first positive sign I’ve seen, in that Ralf Flaxa provided a declaration in support of IBM against SCO back in 2006.”

She seems to believe that the SCO case will carry on and quoting this Desert News article, she notes that “David Bradford, if you recall, testified for Novell against SCO at the most recent jury trial.” To quote:

Still, he said he has “high hopes” for the future of Novell in the wake of its acquisition by The Attachmate Group.

Techrights begs to differ. SUSE under AttachMSFT is basically in bad hands and users are sensing it:

The dust is settling in Attachmate’s purchase of Novell, with Attachmate officially announcing the leadership and organization of its new SUSE business unit on May 18. But despite management assurances, SUSE users remain concerned about the future care and feeding of their Linux distribution of choice.

Nils Brauckmann, the unit’s new president and general manager, pledged “to build a dedicated and focused SUSE business unit, strengthen the SUSE brand with the SUSE logo and get the SUSE message to customers, alliances and the media, and align resources.”

Novell’s account uploads in YouTube are still for proprietary software [1, 2, 3], so this is probably where AttachMSFT is heading. SCO was the same after the Caldera days.

Speaking of the SCO case, Groklaw says that bankruptcy hearings are still being delayed, which probably serves SCO pretty well because Novell is in a state of turmoil/disarray at the moment , just like SCO. Is somebody buying time?

The bankruptcy court has cancelled the hearing scheduled for next Monday, May 23rd, and rescheduled any open matters from that hearing for June 17 at 2:30 p.m. The bankruptcy court has also issued a new Omnibus Hearing Order setting the dates for future hearings. In addition to the June 17th session, hearings are now scheduled for July 18, 2011 at 2:30 p.m., August 15, 2011 at 11:00 a.m., and September 12, 2011 at 10:30 a.m.

SCO and Microsoft would love to tax such things. They also try to tax CentOS using proprietary software addons, as we explained earlier in the week. The other day we showed a post from Microsoft about the subject, but what we did not notice was its author (link rel=”nofollow”ed). “Sandy Gupta of SCO infamy, who tried to persuade the court that ELF is copyrighted by SCO and no one can use it without infringing SCO’s rights, now invites people to run CentOS under Microsoft HypeV control. What a bad idea,” put it our reader, who basically paraphrased Groklaw. The original wording from Jones: “OMG. Look who posted this. It’s Sandy Gupta of SCO fame or infamy, depending on your point of view. Remember his code collage trying to persuade the court that ELF is copyrighted by SCO and no one can use it without infringing SCO’s rights, and how Dr. Brian Kernighan called Gupta’s copyright analysis “indefensible”? When he first went to Microsoft, Gupta was Director, Technical Competitive Strategy of the Server & Tools Division. Gupta’s now General Manager of Marketing, Open Solutions Group, Microsoft. Frankly, that makes me start wondering if anything will ever really come of this CentOS announcement, or whether it’s so much marketing.” Gupta now received big paychecks from Microsoft ('pulling an O'Kelly', the usual way). █

“[Microsoft's] Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.”

–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, key investor in SCO

Summary: How SCO’s lies about Unix ownership are being propagated by the corporate press

THE SCO club keeps deceiving. Here is the erroneous claim that SCO owns Unix even though it’s not. See the headline [1, 2] “Las Vegas-based UnXis buys Unix operating system, service contracts from bankrupt SCO Group”, which pretends they bought Unix (sounds like the trademark is at stake, as the press release contained a lie [1, 2]). And also, the same deception can be found here. Are these articles being researched for?

SCO insider Maureen O’Gara repeats the false claims from SCO: “SCO, which retains the litigation, could still present a problem if the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver gives it leave to continue prosecuting its suit against IBM for fleshing out Linux with Unix code SCO thought it bought from Novell.” IBM was not “fleshing out Linux with Unix code”. Just repeating the allegation won’t make it any more true.

The SCO boosters, including those who visit the company and spread its lies, are still at it. To be fair, these people are also those who promote Microsoft’s agenda, so there is clearly an overlap. SCO boosters, including Rob Enderle, are currently attacking Google, attacking Linux, and attacking just about every threat that exists to Microsoft’s monopoly, as usual.

SJVN says that “SCO is dead, SCO Unix lives on”:

SCO, the anti-Linux lawsuit monster is dead. There are still twitches left in the corpse in the bankruptcy court morgue, but when even Groklaw retires from the field, you know SCO’s as dead as a doornail. But, SCO’s Unix operating systems, OpenServer and UnixWare, will live on under the aegis of a new company, UnXis.

This has some people, including Pamela Jones, editor and founder of Groklaw worried that UnXis might follow in SCO’s lawsuit crazy tracks. “Targeting end users? Uh oh. That has a creepy sound, considering the heritage of SCO, if you know what I mean.”

Interestingly enough, looking at SJVN’s ZDNet blog, it is all that’s left there which covers “Open Source”, with only a handful of posts in about 10 days. ZDNet almost stopped covering FOSS after firing Dana Blankenhorn, who had parroted Microsoft Florian anyway. We are currently investigating ZDNet’s ties with Microsoft as we found something of great significance during our research. We contacted ZDNet to give it an opportunity to defend itself before it’s published. █

Summary: SCO sort of nym-shifts and already tells lies to the public, regarding Unix ownership

AS GROKLAW declares victory and ceases new activity (starting middle of May), SCO’s new lies will be harder to find and respond to. According to this new press release, UnXis [1, 2, 3, 4] is already lying, so it is not a great time for Groklaw to exit; it already disputes the following part, which is a lie: “UnXis is committed to investing $25 million over the next 18 months into product and technology developments, as well as building upon its world-class management, sales and customer support team. UnXis has retained all customer contracts, the UNIX and UNIXWARE trademarks and an installed base of 32,000 customer contracts maintained in 82 countries, including McDonald’s, Siemens, Sperbank, China Post, Thomson Reuters and the US Department of Defense.”

Actually, Novell owns Unix (likely to be passed to AttachMSFT soon).

Who would be left to rebut and counter disinformation from SCO^H^HUnXis? Speaking of disinformation, when Microsoft Florian is not busy making legal threats against those who expose him (we are still not not sure if Dana Blankenhorn got fired from ZDNet because of a post arising from Florian), he is lobbying hard and bragging. Such mobbyists only write about one strand of issues this week (except correspondence with Microsoft MVPs and boosters) and it’s Groklaw or Techrights; it’s his familiar intimidation and defamation tactics. Watch this Slashdot thread:

o on over to LWN and look at Florian’s continued meltdown about how PJ isn’t relevant and he is.

http://lwn.net/Articles/437650/ [lwn.net]

There’s a lot said there that exposes Florian’s true colors.

He heaps praise on the people who spread the most FUD about Linux. Robert Enderle, MOG, Dan “Lyin’” Lyons, and Ed Bott led the charge in the media against Linux. The only person he left out to praise was Rudy De Haas (“Paul Murphy” pseudonym). I’m sorry, but the list of above people have nothing worth listening to and his defense of them shows what side of the fence he’s on.

See other comments. Exposed pretty badly, eh? But looking ahead, the mobbyists will have more time to defame and distort the reality about Groklaw (revisionism), while Groklaw is no longer there to defend itself. We fear that Pamela Jones’ departure is a massive loss to everyone except SCO and Microsoft. █

Summary: SCO gets more money for anti-Linux litigation, thanks to an alleged purchase from an entity tied to former SCO managers

The Wayne Gray UNIX case against Novell notwithstanding (there is more news coverage at Mondaq), the big news at the moment is about SCO.

Our reader Wayne has asked, “The SCO Group Sold?” Another reader, Patrick, links to Slashdot, which in turn links to news that we covered the other day in brief. It’s about UnXis and one must remember that SCO’s Hans Bayer is behind it (at least in part). As a quick refresher see the following older posts:

• Alleged Attack Site of Darl McBride Gets Suspended
• Today’s SCO Bankruptcy Hearing is Called Off, Potential Suitors Named
• Novell Responds to SCO Ruling, More News Coverage
• A Look at the Microsoft-funded SCO Lawsuit in Light of Newer Anti-Linux Microsoft Lawsuits
• IBM’s Latest Filing Regarding SCO Bankruptcy Mentions “Fraud”
• SCO Lies About Hans Bayer
• SCO Scandals Get Worse: unXis Seems to be All About SCO
• Groklaw Unearths Another SCO Scandal; SCO Heads Sued for Theft, Computer Fraud and Abuse
• SCO “Wants to Sue Linux Users Some More” After Another Mysterious Cash Injection

Here is part of Groklaw‘s latest analysis of this important development (Groklaw also saved the press release [PDF] locally):

Well, not yet. Eric Le Blan, now called Vice Chairman of UnXis, is quoted as speaking “outside the courtroom”, of all odd things to mention in a press release. Who is he supposed to be talking to for a press release? Is this more SCO street theater? Le Blan says UnXis will restore SCO to its “former glory”. And “UnXis will soon emerge as a major player in the information technology industry.”

Uh oh. There seems to be a disconnect with reality in this picture. UnXis has no history in software. What I keep remembering is that UnXis tried to buy SCO once before, and the court wouldn’t let it happen. Maybe the press release is to impress the judge. Who else would believe it at this point? Investors, maybe? You can’t find a dumber bunch, from all we’ve seen in the SCO saga.

I take this more as PR for the court and for the market, because while they talk like it’s a done deal, unless the fix is in, the Delaware court has to approve this proposed deal, and there could be objections filed still.

Bill Rochelle wrote the following for Bloomberg:

SCO Trustee Picks unXis as Buyer for Assets

The Chapter 11 trustee for software developer SCO Group Inc., after several delays, held an auction and selected unXis Inc. as having the best offer to buy the business of selling Unix system software products and services. The sale will be up for approval at a Feb. 16 hearing.

unXis is to pay $600,000 cash and give the trustee warrants for 3 percent of its stock. The warrants will be exercisable after unXis has raised $4 million in equity financings. The exercise price will be price for the stock paid by the investor in the last round of financing that brings the total to $4 million.

In August 2009 the bankruptcy judge called for a Chapter 11 trustee, approximately one month before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in the company’s favor after six years of litigation with Waltham, Massachusetts-based Novell Inc. The case went back to the district court where the judge and jury largely ruled against SCO with regard to rights in certain Unix software incorporated in network systems. The trustee sought permission to hold the auction after SCO’s interest in Unix was clarified.

After filing for bankruptcy protection in September 2007, SCO and an affiliate filed schedules listing combined assets of $14.2 million and debt totaling $5.2 million.

The case is In re SCO Group Inc., 07-11337, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

One must remember that unXis seems like a plot to refinance SCO and behind it there is some former SCO staff. Something smells funny here. █

Summary: Darl McBride of SCO infamy is believed to be playing hide and seek, or perhaps just getting into a legal mess

A scandalous smear site which we wrote about a year and half ago is said to have been suspended:

This is for historians, in case any of them wonder who was behind the scurrilous smear campaign that showed up on SkylineCowboy.com: if you visit today, you get redirected to a WebHost4Life message that says the site has been “suspended”. I guess somebody didn’t pay his bills. The url of the redirection is http://www.webhost4life.com/templates/lightsOut.bml?lightsoutuser=cattleback

Cattleback. The name of the subsidiary that SCO created and transferred a patent to and then sold off in 2007 was, if you recall, Cattleback Holdings. And Darl McBride was alleged to be calling himself “Skyline Cowboy” on that site in litigation about the smear campaign and the “loan” McBride said he made to Mark Robbins, plus lots more, that ended up tossed out of court on a technicality. And here the web host says the user behind SkylineCowboy.com used the nym “cattleback”.

And in other news, SCO is looking to raise $600,000 by selling to unXis:

Yes, same old, same old. SCO proposes to sell to the winning bidder, surprise! unXis again. This time the purchase price is $600,000. A little water under that bridge. The last time unXis tried to buy SCO assets, even the bankruptcy judge wouldn’t let it happen, deciding to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee instead. And you know how well that worked out.

Very dodgy. From the people who call themselves after ranch items nothing can ever come that’s truly shocking. █

Summary: Wayne Gray’s case against Novell proceeds and opinions about Mono continue to come

Novell’s disputes over the UNIX trademark/copyrights withstanding (Gray vs Novell^*, not just SCO), there are many questions arising because of Novell’s passage of nearly 1,000 patents to CPTN, which Microsoft is heading [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

The key question is no longer just who gets UNIX copyrights. There is another question about patents now, as Novell helps feed the direct competition of GNU/Linux. It even puts this competition right inside the body of GNU/Linux (e.g. Mono) and the leader in this area, Red Hat, repels it continually. “Mono Vs Fedora: More Facts, less opinions” is a new post worth reading. To quote some bits:

I, and looks like many of Fedora’s contributors too, think like Free Software Foundation. Make a system Mono dependent is a gratuitous risk, because it’s based in Microsoft tecnology, who have patents over this tecnology. Must I say any thing else?

If you said yes, very well, I’ll say more. Why will you use your enemies’ pencil if you have yours? Why will you eat the apple of your neighbor, if in your yard there’s a lot of them? You’ll assume the risk of being without the pencil some day or hungry, this is a fact. You have no control about your enemies’ pencil or about the apples of your neighbors. If you begin to write better than your enemie, you’re using theirs pencil, and he’s able to stop you from writing. If you eat much of the yours neighbor’s apple, he’ll not give it to you anymore.

I’m trying to say that we lose many applications like Banshee, Tomboy and many others if Microsoft simply use the power of the patents it acquires. And can you imagine the size of the problem if in this day your system is stuck with that language.

We recently mentioned how Fedora drove away Mono boosters. Canonical ought to do the same because the next release comes with at least 3 Mono-based applications. █
_____
^* This was covered by Groklaw before (e.g. here), but it is still going on.

Summary: Novell’s UNIX is moving to other hands and there is insufficient confidence that it will stay in safe hands

GROKLAW is down at the moment (has been down for a while), but it showed that SCO’s bankruptcy hearing had been delayed yet again (it happens all the time, repeatedly [1, 2, 3, 4]). It is becoming a source of comedy and ridicule working to the detriment of the legal system.

The SCO case has just proceeded as expected (covered a few days ago). Groklaw has some reports:

Our reporter at the oral argument in SCO’s appeal of its loss to Novell before the jury and before the judge in Utah District Court today has now filed his reports. It sounds from the reports like it went quite well for Novell, although we can’t be sure until the order issues, which could be months.

Would it amaze you if I told you that the report shows that SCO raised an entirely new argument today for the first time? That’s a no-no. Well, they are The Amazings. Also, SCO’s version of what the 10th Circuit ruling was after its first appeal is … well, read it for yourself, and you will see why the judges kept correcting SCO today.

Earlier today we found some articles which speak about Groklaw’s interpretation of SCO, Novell, Microsoft, and AttachMSFT [sic]. Groklaw opined that AttachMSFT may sell UNIX and/or the remainder of Novell’s patents to some entity which is hostile towards Linux. This relates to the patents passed by Novell to CPTN — a serious subject which was previously covered in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. It is a sort of cartel, but there are more such cartels which are strongly connected to Microsoft and help mimic in an aggressive fashion something like OIN (mind the new press release “OIN Licensing Strength Continues in Fourth Quarter as OIN Announces Expanded Effort on Licensing the Linux User Community”), where their goal is to attack companies and attack Linux, unlike the OIN which merely defends something.

Erika Morphy from ECT has this recent article about it, predating the FSF’s complaint which was announced at its site as follows:

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and Free Software Foundation (FSF) have sent a joint position statement to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), urging it to scrutinize Novell’s proposal to sell patents to the newly-formed CPTN Holdings. Both organizations believe that CPTN Holdings may use these patents to attack free, libre, and open source (FLOSS) software. The full text of the statement follows.

Simon Phipps’ post was also aired in a Red hat site and the OSI’s announcement came from a Red Hat employee (both of them are in the OSI too). The main point to reiterate here is that CPTN may get more than it bargained for, depending on what AttachMSFT decides at a later date. UNIX too may be up for grabs, so something in this relationship needs to be derailed. Just about every single body/company with vested interests in Free/open source software wants CPTN to be starved or decommissioned. Coincidence? █

Summary: OIN cannot and would not sue, unlike Microsoft and its shells/pools; CPTN and AttachMSFT [sic] would be bad guardians for Novell’s virtual assets

THERE IS a new FUD/spin pattern and some news regarding CPTN [1, 2, 3, 4]. Owing to messages from Microsoft mobbyists, we realise that they currently try to spin OIN as an illegal thing. Now that Nexenta Systems joins the OIN [1, 2] which continues this amazing pace of over one joiner per week, it sure seems like there is stronger defence for Linux. And yes, OIN is defensive and unlike companies which claim their portfolios to be defensive, OIN has no shareholders and it cannot be sold. The latest announcement says:

Open Invention Network (OIN), the company formed to enable and protect Linux, today extended its community with the signing of Nexenta as a licensee. By becoming a licensee, Nexenta has joined the growing list of organizations that recognize the importance of leveraging the Open Invention Network to further spur open source innovation.

The mobbyists are trying to compare OIN to CPTN, which is of course laughable. The OSI has complained about CPTN and so has the FSFE in Europe (this one is the official statement). Meanwhile, at least two Microsoft/SCO boosters — Maureen O’Gara and Microsoft Florian — rave about the Microsoft patent cartel (CPTN) not being stopped by the European Commission. It should be added that trying to point a finger at OIN as total spin possibly means that they have something to conceal. It’s effective means of diversion.

IDG has just published this new report from CPTN, from which Groklaw quotes:

Additional details have emerged regarding the more than 800 patents Novell is selling to the Microsoft-led consortium CPTN Holdings for US$450 million, about two months after the deal was first announced.

[...]

While preparing to close the deal, Novell discovered that “19 of the patents to be sold to CPTN pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement are lapsed Australian, German or Austrian patent applications rather than issued Australian, German or Austrian patents.” Novell also found that one of the issued patents was referenced twice, it adds.

“As a result, if the patent sale occurs, CPTN would purchase 861 issued patents and pending patent applications and 20 lapsed patent applications,” the filing states.

CPTN has proposed that it be given additional issued patents and pending patent applications in Novell’s portfolio, in order to “unite certain patent families,” “compensate CPTN for the reduction in issued patents,” as well as other considerations. “Attachmate has informed us that they currently do not intend to consent to our changing the list of assigned patents under the Patent Purchase Agreement,” Novell said.

“Is this some kind of hustle,” Groklaw asks, “A Microsoft-organized consortium asks for Unix patents, which is what we heard Attachmate would get, and the answer is Attachmate won’t consent “currently”? Uh oh.” Groklaw later did a whole article about it, repeating some of the above:

The 882 patents turn out not to be 882 after all. There are only 861, and the Microsoft consortium would like some of Attachmate’s to make up for the few they’ve discovered don’t exist… Wait. What? Attachmate was to get only patents and copyrights associated with Novell’s UNIX and Linux businesses, right? Microsoft wants some of those? Like, um… some UNIX copyrights perchance? Novell says Attachmate won’t “currently” consent.

What about later? Is this some kind of hustle?

Yes, this is what we said about UNIX at AttachMSFT a long time ago, way back in November. █

Summary: The remaining assets of SCO are being sold (e.g. support for remnant of its customers) and the Novell case will resume shortly

The SCO case is not over just yet. This serves as a cautionary lesson regarding the litigation system (“legal system” sounds too good), which favours persistence and works quite well for lawyers (the longer the process, the more they will be paid).

Since we mentioned Groklaw in the previous post, it seems reasonable to mention its updates regarding SCO bills and SCO’s latest sale of business assets (said to have taken place 4 days):

SCO wants to have another auction. The first one was a fizzle, or so they seem to be indicating, even though at the hearing back in August on SCO’s desire to hold the first auction, they represented they had bidders lined up already. But no sale.

This isn’t just another way to delay until after the January 20th oral argument in SCO’s appeal of its loss to Novell, is it? Or avoid the inevitable discussion about defaulting on the Yarro loan, handing over the keys, and turning out the lights once and for all on SCO as we knew it? And what should us normal folks hope for in such a scenario as this?

That we knew The Rest of the Story of what’s going on behind the scenes, methinks.

The above gives away the date of January twentieth, which Groklaw is going to aim for and cover:

Synchronize your watches, and if you need to book a flight, now you know the day to arrange for. SCO is listed last for that day, but call the court if you plan to attend to verify closer to the date.

SCO is eternally in bankruptcy, as Groklaw helps show: “SCO has filed its monthly operating reports for October in the bankruptcy farce. Here are the September MORs, if you’d like to compare.”

Here is a new press release regarding a book with SCO vs. Novell in it:

Tenth Circuit’s The SCO Group, Inc. v. Novell, Inc.; Retirement Group v. Galante and Dowell v. Biosense Webster, Inc., from the California Court of Appeal

It will be interesting to see what AttachMSFT [sic] does regarding this whole case, which has cost Novell a lot of money (Novell really wants UNIX for itself). █

Summary: Novell’s assets are being blown in the wind amid transition into new hands and accordingly new priorities

Groklaw continues to cover the SCO case, still neglecting to mention the possibility that — just like Novell sold its patents — AttachMSFT [sic] will sell UNIX, which was worth a lot of money to Novell (that’s why it fought against SCO, for shareholders). Pamela Jones recalls the early days of this case when she writes:

We also have transcripts of all the pre-trial hearings going back to 2003 in all the various SCO litigations, SCO v. IBM, SCO v. AutoZone, SCO v. Daimler-Chrysler, the SCO bankruptcy, and Red Hat v. SCO, all on that same page, as well as in SCO v. Novell, so you can deep-dive if you’d like to and follow the thread from the beginning to the end. Both sections have links to PDFs, text versions, and Groklaw’s reports from the courts. I hope you find it useful. I’m positive it will be useful for historians and law professors wanting to use the SCO saga to teach their students to have it all organized in one easier-to-find place. We’re still working on an Exhibits section, which we’ll add when it’s done, listing all the exhibits used at trial that we can identify from the transcripts and showing when they were introduced.

Novell’s new press release speaks about SUSE only in the context of appliances and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols talks about it too. A few weeks ago we wrote about Novell throwing out there all that’s left in the pipeline before AttachMSFT [sic] takes over, probably as it may axe some of this portfolio. It’s a rocky and uncertain time for Novell employees. Therefore, the timing of this press release makes strategic sense. It helps hide reality by quantifying the wrong items, easily neglecting for example the declining impact of OpenSUSE, which may or may not qualify as a product (spin versus reality).

According to OpenSUSE’s community manager Jos Poortvliet and the OpenSUSE Web site, Alan Clark replaces the recently-departing Michael Löffler [1, 2] as OpenSUSE Board Chairman:

As you know, Michael Loeffler has left the openSUSE Board to pursue new opportunities, we are sad to see him go and wish him well. With his departure and with the upcoming Board elections, we have a desire to see a new Chairperson selected. The election rules state that the Chairperson be appointed by Novell and yesterday Markus Rex, General Manager of Novells Open Platform Solutions, presented Alan Clark to us as the new Chairperson.

Susan Linton continues to write about OpenSUSE, which other than those posts of hers hardly receives any press coverage. Linton claims:

Ubuntu takes a lot of punches from time to time for its marketing and even its interface. Some feel Ubuntu is dumbed down and oversimplified, while many others think it’s innovative and user-friendly. Where ever you fall in the debate, one developer thinks some elements of Ubuntu should land into openSUSE. In fact, he has packaged up and pushed them to openSUSE:Contrib.

Stephan Kulow explains how the project uses power, having previously encountered issues of neglect from Novell. These good folks should just fork it and move away from AttachMSFT [sic], which is likely to do to OpenSUSE what SCOracle [sic] did to OpenSolaris and now appears to be doing to OpenOffice. █

Summary: Novell clarifies that UNIX was not sold to Microsoft, but it is being passed over to AttachMSFT, which has little or no reason to keep it

Linux Australia says that SUSE is safe from Novell’s patent sale to Microsoft, but what about all the other distributions and companies? As Groklaw resumes covering more news from SCO vs. Novell [1, 2] one has to wonder if AttachMSFT will even bother with this case. HP shows up in this case now, as well:

HP has now joined the growing group of companies reserving its rights in the SCO bankrupty regarding SCO’s Notice of Cure Amounts in connection with SCO’s hoped-for sale of its assets. But its reason is different: it can’t find all the contracts SCO says it has with HP, and neither can SCO.

This is a case which does not matter so much anymore. Think about it. It matters a lot less because even if Novell wins, Novell is a goner. Is UNIX safer in AttachMSFT’s hands?

One blogger asks: “Is Open Source under Siege? Let’s Hope Not!”

In the last months, Oracle has stepped away from the open software community, focusing more on short-term monetizing of the open source products they have acquired from Sun Microsystems. There are speculations that Red Hat might have sold out the wider Open Source community in favor of its own customers in a sealed patent infringement settlement, which might have a similar effect as Novell’s deal with Microsoft which has let to calls to boycott Novell.

Now, Novell has been acquired by Attachmate, apparently backed by Microsoft, with the side-effect that at least 882 of Novell’s patents will be transferred to a Microsoft backed consortium.

As we stated earlier, UNIX is not the main problem here (not in the short term anyway) because as John Dragoon clarified when it became a PR disaster, “Novell [is] to retain UNIX copyrights” (immediate coverage from The H):

Novell has announced that it will be retaining the copyrights to the UNIX operating system. In the wake of the acquisition of Novell by Attachmate, which included a sale of intellectual property to CPTN, a Microsoft led consortium, there were questions raised over whether that intellectual property included the copyrights to the UNIX operating system.

This was also covered in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. As one site put it very concisely, “Novell has said that the copyright to its Unix operating system will remain with Attachmate Corporation after the merger, and not go to the Microsoft led CPTN Holdings.” Well, but who controls AttachMSFT?

Charles Schulz from LibreOffice wrote: “This is a security announcement: #Novell still owns the #Unix copyright. The kept the nukes but sold the bioweapons?”

Novell’s PR blog has generally gone quite silent and posted very little [1, 2] compared to its weekly average (the PR staff is probably busy somewhere else). Red Hat’s Jan Wildeboer tells Glyn Moody: “IMHO #AttachMSFT will offer SUSE+UNIX as a package soonish to $BUYER.” That is a possibility too. James Turner says that patents are still the main problem to worry about:

Life is definitely less clear now that Novell is being consumed by Attachmate. For one thing, part of the deal involves transferring a big chunk of Novell IP to a company fronting for Microsoft. Hopefully, it’s just the normal collection of garbage software patents every big company seems to end up with, and not anything that would provide an avenue of attack against Linux.

Groklaw looks deeper as it tries to understand the nature of this deal:

Attachmate acquires Novell, then it combines Longview and Novell and then the combo is called Novell going forward. That’s what I read, anyway. So there will still be an Attachmate parent company and a Novell subsidiary, I guess, going forward, and Novell will hold the UNIX copyrights.

Anyway, here is Novell’s press release (spin) and some of the remaining coverage, the full extent of which is hundreds if not thousands of links.

• Finally, a Buyer for Novell
• Attachmate acquires Novell for $2.2 Billion
• Attachmate Acquires Novell for $2.2 Billion
• Novell agrees to private equity takeover
• 2nd UPDATE: Novell Agrees To Private-Equity Takeover For $2.2B
• Microsoft-led group to pay $450M for 882 Novell patents
• Novell to Be Bought by Attachmate for $2.2 Billion After Rejecting Elliott
• Goodbye, Novell
• Microsoft led consortium buys Novell assets
• Seattle’s Attachmate acquiring Novell in $2.2B deal
• SUSE safe from Novell patent sale: Linux Australia
• Attachmate Grabs Novell; Microsoft Grabs Novell Patents
• Microsoft led consortium buys Novell assets
• Novell Sells Out to Attachmate, Leaves the Future of Suse Linux Unclear
• Red Hat rival Novell agrees to $2.2B takeover by private equity backed firm
• Novell agrees to be bought by Attachmate for $2.2 billion
• Attachmate Corp. to buy Novell
• Novell: It Was The Best Deal, Says Hovsepian
• Monday Deals: Moody’s Buys CSI Global; Novell to Merge with Attachmate
• Novell to be acquired in private-equity deal
• Nation, world business news in brief | Novell to be sold for $2.2 billion
• Attachmate Acquires Novell
• Novell Bought By Attachmate? Really?
• Today’s media stories from the papers (mentions Novell)
• Novell, Inc. has Decided to be Acquired by Attachmate Corp. – NASDAQ:NOVL
• Novell To Be Acquired By Privately Held Attachmate For $2.2 Bln – Update
• Enterprise software provider Novell bought by Attachmate for $2.2B
• Attachmate agrees to purchase Novell
• Novell Acquired: Buying Shares Here Still Makes Sense
• Novell to be bought for $2.2B by Attachmate
• Finally, a Buyer for Novell
• Good morning tech: Boehner questions Gibbs, GOP Chairman battle dicey
• Attachmate, Diamondback: Hot Trends
• Attachmate gobbles up Novell for $2.2bn
• Attachmate Set To Acquire Novell
• Genzyme Sheds Diagnostics Unit, Novell Acquired by Attachmate, Archemix Sells Hemophilia IP to Baxter, & More Boston-Area Deals News
• Novell bought by Attachmate
• Novell, We Hardly Knew Ye
• Hedge Fund Forced Novell Buyout…but Didn’t Get Rich
• Novell Acquisition Strategy By Attachmate…
• Private equity firms to buy Novell
• Attachmate Buys Novell
• Attachmate Conquers Novell, Investors Earn $6.10 a Share
• Novell Is Dead; Cause Of Death Is Lack Of Focus
• It’s the end of Novell as we know it
• Novell agrees $2.2bn buyout
• Microsoft buys Novell patents as a part of Attachmate deal
• Novell’s Pending Private Takeover: Buyouts Are Back
• Novell To be Purchased for $2.2 Billion
• Novell agrees to $2.2b sale
• Ring the Bell: Novell Is Acquired by Attachmate for $2.2 Billion
• Novell draws bidding war; Attachmate offers $2.2B
• Novell Sells Out To Attachmate
• Daily Dose – Someone Finally Buys Novell
• The top 10 stories in IT this week
• Attachmate may keep 882 Unix patents, not Microsoft

In the next two parts we will look at investor lawsuits and proprietary software from Novell. █

–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO

“[The partnership with Microsoft is] going very well insofar as we originally agreed to co-operate on three distinct projects and now we’re working on nine projects and there’s a good list of 19 other projects that we plan to co-operate on.”

–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO

Summary: Novell’s sale marks a special day of Novell coverage, probably the last of its kind

TECHRIGHTS will interrupt its normal flow of news today in order to concentrate solely on Novell. Just over 4 years ago Boycott Novell was launched and today Novell gives up and sells the business. It’s a special day which in many ways provides closure to a struggle I’ve been part of for more than 4 years. Today we all reach a milestone which many of us have been waiting for (not because it’s necessarily beneficial). It’s primarily about software patents, which are the #1 problem software freedom is facing.

Our latest software patents coverage (Microsoft’s last resort) will have to be delayed until later in the week. We reserve lengthy coverage for a later post and instead start with this press release (spin warning). Also see “Novell sold to Attachmate” (at LWN), which has not any comments yet.

Jan Wildeboer from Red Hat has just told me: “check CPTN holdings – they will buy certain IP assets acc to [the press release] [...]”

Separately he wrote: “Seems MSFT spinoff buys Novell “IPR”, rest goes to attachmate.”

Glyn Moody quotes Novell as stating: “sale of certain intellectual property assets to consortium of technology cos organized by Microsoft” (Moody adds: “not good (via @jdub)”).

Wildeboer concludes for the time being with: “So now MSFT own the copyright of UNIX? Interesting” (this was RTed many times in Identi.ca).

We warned about this and explained that Novell had become just a tool of Microsoft. Phoronix chose the headline “Novell’s Finally Sold: Going To Attachmate & Microsoft”. More later. █

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), the leader in intelligent workload management, today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Attachmate Corporation would acquire Novell for $6.10 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion. Attachmate Corporation is owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo. Novell also announced it has entered into a definitive agreement for the concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation, for $450 million in cash, which cash payment is reflected in the merger consideration to be paid by Attachmate Corporation.

The $6.10 per share consideration represents a premium of 28% to Novell’s closing share price on March 2, 2010, the last trading day prior to the public disclosure of Elliott Associates, L.P.’s proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Novell for $5.75 per share and a 9% premium to Novell’s closing stock price on November 19, 2010.

“After a thorough review of a broad range of alternatives to enhance stockholder value, our Board of Directors concluded that the best available alternative was the combination of a merger with Attachmate Corporation and a sale of certain intellectual property assets to the consortium,” said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell. “We are pleased that these transactions appropriately recognize the value of Novell’s relationships, technology and solutions, while providing our stockholders with an attractive cash premium for their investment.”

Mr. Hovsepian continued, “We also believe the transaction with Attachmate Corporation will deliver important benefits to Novell’s customers, partners and employees by providing opportunities for building on Novell’s brands, innovation and market leadership.”

“We are very excited about this transaction as it greatly complements our existing portfolio,” said Jeff Hawn, chairman and CEO of Attachmate Corporation. “Novell has an established record of innovation, impressive technology and brand assets, and a leading ecosystem of partnerships and talented employees. The addition of Novell to our Attachmate and NetIQ businesses will enhance the spectrum of solutions we can offer to customers. We fully support Novell’s commitment to its customers and we look forward to continuing to invest for the benefit of Novell’s customers and partners.”

Attachmate Corporation plans to operate Novell as two business units: Novell and SUSE; and will join them with its other holdings, Attachmate and NetIQ.

Attachmate Corporation’s acquisition of Novell is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and is also conditioned upon the closing of the proposed sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC. In addition, the transaction is subject to approval by Novell’s stockholders. The sale of the intellectual property assets to the consortium is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and is also conditioned upon the closing of the merger with Attachmate Corporation. Novell currently expects these transactions to close in the first quarter of 2011.

J.P. Morgan is serving as financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to Novell. Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets are serving as financial advisors and Jones Day is acting as legal advisor to Attachmate Corporation.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in intelligent workload management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. Novell helps customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux-based operating platforms. With its infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

About Attachmate Corporation

Attachmate Corporation, owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo, enables IT organizations to extend mission critical services and assures they are managed, secure and compliant. Principal holdings include Attachmate (www.attachmate.com) and NetIQ (www.netiq.com).

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication, and all oral statements made regarding the subject matter of this communication, contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the current expectations and beliefs of Novell and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (such as statements containing the words “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates” and similar expressions) should be considered forward-looking statements. Among others, the following risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: (i) the risk that the proposed sale of intellectual property assets and the proposed merger may not be consummated in a timely manner, if at all; (ii) the risk that the definitive merger agreement may be terminated in circumstances that require Novell to pay Attachmate Corporation a termination fee of $60 million; (iii) risks related to the diversion of management’s attention from Novell’s ongoing business operations; (iv) risks regarding the failure of Attachmate Corporation to obtain the necessary financing to complete the merger; (v) the effect of the announcement of the sale of the intellectual property assets or the merger on Novell’s business relationships (including, without limitation, partners and customers), operating results and business generally; and (vi) risks related to obtaining the requisite consents to the sale of the intellectual property assets and the merger, including, without limitation, the timing (including possible delays) and receipt of regulatory approvals from various governmental entities (including any conditions, limitations or restrictions placed on these approvals) and the risk that one or more governmental entities may deny approval. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Novell’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at the SEC’s website http://www.sec.gov. Because forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, actual results and events may differ materially from results and events currently expected by Novell. Novell expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change of expectations with regard thereto or to reflect any change in events, conditions or circumstances.

Additional Information About the Merger and Where to Find it

In connection with the proposed merger, Novell intends to file relevant materials with the SEC, including a proxy statement. Investors and security holders of Novell are urged to read these documents (if and when they become available) and any other relevant documents filed with the SEC, as well as any amendments or supplements to those documents, because they will contain important information about Novell, the proposed sale of intellectual property assets, the proposed merger and the parties to these proposed transactions. Investors and security holders may obtain these documents (and any other documents filed by Novell and Attachmate Corporation with the SEC) free of charge at the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. In addition, the documents filed with the SEC by Novell may be obtained free of charge by directing such request to: Novell Investor Relations at 1-800-317-3195 or from the investor relations website portion of Novell’s website at http://www.novell.com/company/ir/. Investors and security holders are urged to read the proxy statement and the other relevant materials when they become available before making any voting or investment decision with respect to the proposed merger.

Novell and its directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Novell’s stockholders in respect of the proposed merger. Information regarding Novell’s directors and executive officers is contained in Novell’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2009, its proxy statement for its 2010 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, dated February 26, 2010, and subsequent filings which Novell has made with the SEC. Stockholders may obtain additional information about the directors and executive officers of Novell and their respective interests with respect to the proposed merger by security holdings or otherwise, which may be different than those of Novell’s stockholders generally, by reading the definitive proxy statement and other relevant documents regarding the proposed merger, when filed with the SEC. Each of these documents is, or will be, available as described above.

SOURCE Novell, Inc.
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Summary: The overpriced UNIX-like operating system from Apple cannot compete with rising stars like GNU/Linux, so Apple calls the whole thing off

IN THE SERVER ROOM, the workload counts. Where it’s all about performance, heavy and overly expensive machinery whose looks nobody would care about (it’s in the back room after all), Apple is a non-starter and indeed, the avalanche of dead Apple products may start to arrive (it began a while ago but we had not kept track). Say goodbye to Xserve:

Apple has announced it will discontinue Xserve from 31 January, saying it will “transition away” from the line of server solutions.

A document has been posted on the resources section of its site, stating it will not create a future version of the Xserve line and will stop selling it from January.

An Apple enthusiasts’ site (“Cult of Mac”) cannot quite put lipstick on this pig. There’s no good excuse that we could find coming from Apple and its fanbase.

If you’re a network administrator in love with the svelte, stackable design of Apple’s Xserve line, you’d better stock up: Apple has announced that they will be discontinuing the Xserve line starting January 31st, 2011.

We are stating a wiki to track products/divisions Apple shuts down from now it. It will help keep track. █

LAST WEEK someone from the United States (ked) uploaded this old UnixWare video from Novell:

The video is from 94 and it says “Novell is UNIX” at the end. That’s still true, even though SCO wishes to dispute it.

Groklaw is still catching up with missing (undocumented) parts of the SCO case, gradually exposing more parts of the March trial. Here’s some of the latest:

Let’s continue with the second part of the events of Day 9 at the second SCO v. Novell trial, before the Hon. Ted Stewart, a continuation of this article, part 1, where you’ll find the complete transcript as text. We ran out of space, so you may want to open up the previous article alongside this one, so you can follow along with the transcript.

So we’re still talking about the events on March 18, 2010. When we left off, Dr. Christine Botosan was on the stand, enduring cross examination by Novell’s lawyer, Sterling Brennan. I do mean enduring, because she was very much on the defensive, and as you will see, it gets worse for her.

SCO's software assets are up for sale now and so are Novell's. So what about UNIX?

“Another SCO Creditor Sells Its Claim to Argo,” Groklaw says:

Tech Marketing Ink of Orem, Utah, a creditor in the SCO bankruptcy, has sold its claim to Argo Partners. I guess it figured a bird in the hand and all that. At this point, the company may feel that there’s no getting blood from a stone and the likelihood of getting paid by SCO in bankruptcy court is slim. You can sell your claim if anyone will buy it, usually for a price that may be less than you are owed, but at least you have something. In real money. In a real world.

Novell’s sale is very important not just because of SUSE (with liabilities from the notorious Microsoft deal) and Novell’s many software patents; it’s also important because of UNIX, which needs to be put in safe hands such as IBM’s. A dead Novell is in some ways more menacing than a Novell that’s alive and helping Microsoft. █

Summary: As a resort to losers there is always litigation and this is where Microsoft is going, still hoping to prove that no Free/libre software is free (gratis), this time because of software patents as opposed to copyrights (UNIX)

MICROSOFT’S DIRECTION increasingly resembles that of SCO. Yes, the “free is expensive” line was previously used against Linux, even prior to SCO’s lawsuit against IBM and others. “Just to point out [...] Android runs on Linux,” wrote Groklaw some days ago, “so this is more of the same old, same old Microsoft. [...] When companies can’t compete any more, like SCO, they think of suing for license fees, I guess. But why would that make you want to buy anything from them? No one respects a bully, as SCO found out.” Groklaw still watches the SCO case against Novell. Techrights has watched the Microsoft patent fight against Linux since its dawn in November 2006.

Further promoting the idea that no mobile operating system can be free of charge, Microsoft recently paid Acacia [1, 2], the patent troll which bothers Red Hat. This leads to the perception that there is debt to be paid, whether this was Microsoft’s intent or not.

Android ain’t free, according to this article from CNN whose headline says that “Microsoft gets paid”. We have warned about this years in advance and called for opposition against it.

On the back of the news that Microsoft (MSFT) is suing Motorola (MOT) for patent infringments related to Android, Steve Ballmer tells the Wall Street Journal that HTC is paying a license fee for its use of Android…and that other Android manufactures may be forced to do the same.

WSJ: Is that difficult in an environment where Android is free?
Mr. Ballmer: Android has a patent fee. It’s not like Android’s free. You do have to license patents. HTC’s signed a license with us and you’re going to see license fees clearly for Android as well as for Windows.
WSJ: It doesn’t seem like the license fee alone is a big financial opportunity for Microsoft.
Mr. Ballmer: It’s one of the opportunities. One.

“Microsoft becoming the next SCO” says this headline from The Source, which takes the opportunity to warn Mono and Moonlight proponents.

And some desillusioned people still believe Mono/Moonlight would be free (and safe from Microsoft) if it ever would have the same sucess as Android…!

ITWire has similar remarks to make in the new article “Microsoft’s new spin: Android isn’t free”:

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told The Wall Street Journal in an interview: “Android has a patent fee. It’s not like Android’s free. You do have to license patents. HTC’s signed a license with us and you’re going to see license fees clearly for Android as well as for Windows.”

A trustworthy and typically speculations-free Web site opines that Microsoft’s Android lawsuit may be payback for Motorola’s Windows Mobile defection.

Google responded to Microsoft’s patent infringement lawsuit against Motorola over Android smartphones, saying the legal action “threatens innovation.” Meanwhile, analysts speculate on the timing and target of the lawsuit, with one analyst calling it payback against Motorola for abandoning Windows Mobile, and another suggesting the lawsuit is covering fire for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 release.

Motorola ought to protest against Microsoft’s aggression rather than do something similar under the “he started it” defence. For more information about Motorola, see our Wiki about the company. █

Summary: No buyer is found for SCO’s software assets (at least not just yet) and Novell keeps exploring more acquisition options

THERE has not been much news regarding the Novell sale and the SCO asset sale [1, 2, 3, 4]. What we do know, however, is that a buyer has not been found by SCO yet (there are speculations) and SCO is not reorganising just yet.

Finally, SCO filed its MORs for July. Is anybody noticing they don’t seem to be reorganizing?

Scott Ruecker wrote this nice summary last week and it seems like a good fit:

It seems that the SCO trial has finally come to an end but even in the settling of the dust the lawyers can’t stop filing motions. The Oracle-Sun deal looks to be the next long term big story in FOSS I believe. The possible implications for FOSS with Oracle now owning one of the most extensive technology patent portfolios outside of IBM mean that there are more exciting times ahead, if that is what you want to call it.

All the while Microsoft still puts out tasty pieces of FUD every so often and I have come to find it reassuring in its consistency.

That’s the part which Novell helped initiate. It backfired and Novell is left in the street. It is now being claimed that Novell has trouble selling just SUSE because it would leave the rest somewhat orphaned. As one site put it, “The trouble is Netware and other legacy properties that made Novell a force to be reckoned with in the days before Microsoft taught Windows how to network. It appears that Novell doesn’t want to sell SUSE unless Netware and identity management divisions are included in the deal at a premium price. Or else, they don’t want to sell SUSE unless they sell Netware first, at a premium price. Either way, they evidently want a lot of bucks for Netware. More that anyone seems to be willing to pay.” This is also covered in [1, 2, 3] and as Pogson puts it:

From my point of view, Suse Linux will be sold with or without the other baggage (except the identity stuff which will be important for a while) but the dealing and the price eventually agreed will indicate the value some serious players give in their assessment of the future of GNU/Linux. There is no need to buy Suse unless you figure they have a foot in the door and you want to ride it when the door opens.

As people who depend on Novell wait and watch Novell’s next steps [1, 2, 3], most Novell news is financial news about Novell’s sharp movements in the stock market [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23].

At the end of last week it was reported that “Novell shares fall on report of auction delay” and “Novell Falls Nearly 7%”. As Novell sales fall, the longer it waits, the less valuable it will be. UNIX needs to receive a trustworthy new steward like IBM. █