Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Real Story Behind the Novell/Microsoft Deal or Just a Conspiracy

Microsoft Novell



The following new article sheds some light on an important aspects of the Novell/Microsoft deal. It appeared earlier today in the Financial Times:

The two companies linked arms once in 2006 when Microsoft wrote Novell a check for USD 348m. The move was designed to show the company is not a monopolist, said Levitt.


Be aware that IDC is little more than a Microsoft-dependent firm [1, 2], so its words must be taken with a great degree of caution. Nevertheless, there is an element of truth therein.

A reader contacted us earlier and his message was enlightening.




Do you remember after the shady deal http://mp3.com.com/Microsoft+makes+Linux+pact+with+Novell/2100-1016_3-6132119.html a novell manager got hired by Microsoft ? Looks suspicious, don't you think ? I don't find the story anymore. Do you have it ?




Thoughts come to mind about burial, withdrawal and manipulation of search engines or articles [1, 2] (information control), but can anyone remember the name of that manager? It predates the creation of a joint interoperability lab and it may suggest that an inside affair was involved in making the Microsoft/Novell deal happen. We already have some details about the story, which we extracted from the audiocast delivered by Dan Bricklin.

“Be aware of the fact that Microsoft had its own General Manager in charge (to an extent) of XenSource before using Citrix to virtually 'steal' it and put Xen in the dustbin.”We last mentioned this about a week, but we wish to find out more about Justin Steinman's employment history. We also wish to find out which Novell employees were hired by Microsoft just before and after the deal. If Crispin Cowan worked on AppArmor while at Novell, then that's an example which is only 3-weeks old, so it is probably of little or no relevance.

Be aware of the fact that Microsoft put its own General Manager in charge (to an extent) of XenSource before using Citrix to virtually 'steal' it and put Xen in the dustbin. Then you have the recent news about Microsoft's plan to steal/hijack Yahoo in a hostile fashion. This is not far-fetched; it's often strategic.

We have been looking for potential Novell/Microsoft 'insiders', so in case you know any, please speak out. Groklaw suggests that Justin Steinman might be one of the men to look into because he occupies a role in both companies and he is sometimes held responsible/accountable for a lot of this uncomfortable situation.

There might be more to this mess than a small group of people. Watch the sample of comments posted to the OpenSUSE mailing list. People are still unhappy and there is a serious issue of mistrust that Novell is trying quite hard to wash away.

Our reader, who shared quite a few insights, adds:




[I] Did not know this, [and it's] interesting and fits the systematic corruption, but what i remember went the other way round: The Novell manager got a job at Microsoft i thought as a reward for making the deal.




What the reader may or may not know about are Ron Hovsepian's bonuses which came shortly after he had signed the deal. We saw a similar pattern later on.

It's a bit of a post mortem really, but Novell's recent actions expose a lot. Some questions that still need to be addressed and answered are centered around employment, communication and possible exchange of money. Judging by the past, there is little or no reason for Novell and Microsoft to be friends, but what if an influenced (by the outside) leader was put in place? Look again at the XenSource and Yahoo examples.

We still have an article that is very damaging to Novell and we cannot quite publish it yet because of possible implications (it's not safe). It will probably come out one day. We are close to finding some big answers.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
 
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education
Links for the day
The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
"Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague
Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
"Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point)
IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also
Unable to find a business model
GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
Wayland is Bad for the Planet
If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
On Microsoft Layoffs
we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together"
This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud"
Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.