"That's what friends are for"

How badly does Microsoft hurt Novell? Here is a newly-published article that describes the way things used to be.

At the height of its success in the early 1990s, NetWare commanded more than 70% of the market and a loyal customer base drawn to the product for its file sharing prowess, reliability and performance

The article moves on to explaining how Microsoft snatched Novell's market share and if you watch the following "blast from the past" you'll discover what really happened. It was no fair fight. To this date, Microsoft capitalises on its past abuses against Novell and here's one of the latest migration stories.

Village Board members awarded a bid to Verity Three Inc. on Thursday night to switch Lake in the Hills’ network provider from Novell to Microsoft.

It is worth repeating (and it will be repeated in the future) that Novell made friends with a company that fought it very viciously and went as far as technical sabotage. Novell (executives in particular) is to be blamed for its own mistake. It came running to Microsoft for yet another partnership that has already backfired. By refusing to learn from history, the new Novell (Linux and open source) is doomed to have it repeated.

It was only the heaps of money offered by Microsoft which had Novell surrender as it foolishly did.