Guess who's coming to this year's BrainShare?

Microsoft will serve as a platinum sponsor of BrainShare 2007, said Bruce Lowry, a Novell spokesperson. But Sun won't be exhibiting at BrainShare at all.

This ought to remind us of other conferences, including Linux conferences, where Microsoft steals the thunder. Novell's invitation of its new 'friend' and ally only fuels anger among those who are calling Novell the "Bad Guy of the Linux community", including Editors.

That was what ran through my mind this week when I saw this headline from Computer Business Review: "HSBC Signs Up for Microsoft's SUSE Linux Support." The double-take took a bit to settle in, because for a second I wondered if Microsoft actually owned SUSE Linux now.

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Today, Novell is the Bad Guy of the Linux community, a mantle it took from Red Hat the day it announced its partnership arrangement with Microsoft.

Novell has not only taken this burden off Red Hat's back. Even Linspire, which works more closely with Canonical these days, suddenly seems very decent, despite their 'funny business' with rent-for-rant Benderle (sic).

We should have learned from the past that giving the other side a voice, as Novell mistakenly did, is a recipe for trouble. Consider some of the following quotes:

"I saw what appeared to be a word-for-word copy of about every third line of code in the central module of the Linux kernel" -- Rob Enderle

"Many Linux supporters are a bunch of potty-mouthed malcontents. Enterprises are better off staying away from Linux and open source" -- Rob Enderle

"Linux is being widely used on the desktop in the third world, where applications are limited and labor is inexpensive..." -- Rob Enderle

"I have a hard time seeing the Zealots as any different from terrorist... I strongly believe that if September 11 showed us anything, it was that zealots" -- Rob Enderle

"I started writing about Linux because I was told I couldn't and the more people told me I couldn't, and particularly when they said 'or else,' the more the Linux dirty laundry became attractive to me" -- Rob Enderle

Novell should have known better. Microsoft and its shills play hardball. At present, Microsoft uses every chance, including Novell/Linux deals, to spread disseminate and spread fear. We have covered many stories which prove this.