"...Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux."

--Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO

EXTRACTED FROM this antitrust exhibit [PDF] (context here), everyone should a look at what a Microsoft vice president wrote about GNU/Linux:

5. We need someone to tear down the indemnification offered from RedHat and IBM to customers. We need to understand exactly the risk a customer is under if a patent lawsuit happens and Linux is challenged. I’d like Dan to own this. There MUST be risks to customers that are being passed on. I want this understood precisely. We need to get the license from IBM given to customers and investigate.

That was said less than 6 months before SCO attacked Linux. The same goes for this reference to SCO and Novell from Microsoft's General Manager in India. ⬆