It turns out that not only Microsoft and Novell -- but Oracle as well -- play the game of FUD. This tactic can be a very powerful, however questionable it may seem. It leads to backlash and it repels customers, but overall, it's proving to be quiot effective. The following article criticises Microsoft for engaging in such tactics.

The concept of indemnification is insidious. Rather than assuaging fears, it actually contributes to them because the risks involved are so vague. Who might file a lawsuit? What code will be involved? What sums will be named? What other companies might step up to defend against it? What will be the long-term implications of the suit? And given so many unknowns, how can you budget for indemnification? How much security are you really getting for your money?

It turns out, to use a parallel, that Oracle's recent lawsuit against SAP is having the same sort of impact.

Intellectual property lawsuit may generate fear, uncertainty and doubt among customers, analysts say

When will the customers, the community, and the developers/volunteers be considered a high priority? These corporate games serve nobody apart from investors and executives. Wake up and smell the coffee, Novell. While your investors might be pleased, you anger quite a lot of people. Like Oracle, which strives to rob Red Hat's business, or even Microsoft, which thinks it is "at war" with Linux, Novell seems to be fighting a war of FUD against other Linux distributors.

To make matters worse, at BrainShare, Novell escaped the real issue and chose to pretend that their war should remain a cold one. This leads to further uncertainty.

But while the chat discussed the interoperability component of the agreement between the companies, it ignored the covenant not to sue one another's customers over patent infringements, which is the most controversial part of the deal for some in the open-source community.

So, to Novell, the strategy is clear. The writings on the wall remain: "we've signed a deal, we have no regrets about it, and we're not willing to talk about it or resolve ambiguities". Classic FUD.