03.20.10
IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: March 20th, 2010
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Señor de Icaza Meets Other Microsoft MVPs
Summary: José, Miguel, and other boosters of Microsoft Corporation have a get-together at the company’s annual event
IT’S this time of the year again. Microsoft Mix 2010 is on, so it’s time for Novell’s VP (who is behind Mono and Moonlight) to mingle with some other Microsoft boosters (like José Antônio Farias) and speak about some ideas for promoting failed products like Xbox. Yes, for those who missed the news, Novell is now helping Xbox 360 [1, 2]. How pathetic and predictable. It’s worth mentioning this scoop from the same event (regarding Microsoft’s failed mobile business): “Win phone 7 marketplace can automatically revoke apps – delete them from your device! #mix10″ (originally from a Microsoft booster).
We have just found this video of Miguel de Icaza speaking to Microsoft colleagues/MVPs at Microsoft’s Mix 2010. Sadly, it’s in Spanish. Can anyone please provide a translation?
Novell’s other .NET people compare Ruby and C#, probably looking for justifications to support and promote Mono (and by extension .NET). Novell does the same thing by belittling Java. This newer post is less about belittling Ruby but perhaps about luring in Ruby developers so that they consider moving to .NET. It’s a bit speculative though.
“This newer post is less about belittling Ruby but perhaps about luring in Ruby developers so that they consider moving to .NET.”According to another new post, Evolution’s Mono extensions (or “plugins”) make people think. The SUSE/Novell camp denies everything using special words like “conspiracy” [1, 2]. From the opening: “Someone, who probably has no idea of what it takes to maintain a large codebase, suggested that Canonical/Ubuntu should fork Evolution. He also sensed a non-existing Microsoft conspiracy. These days we seem to hear more about conspiracies by evil corporations than about technology/user-needs 
”
Of all companies, Canonical is probably the least likely to fork Evolution, which is Novell’s own product by the way. If there is a distribution that truly dodges Mono and even maintains Gnote, it is Fedora (Red Hat). No former Microsoft employees and Microsoft MVPs appear to have occupied that project. The same cannot be said about Canonical, which hired from Microsoft and Novell and has former Microsoft employees making suggestions to its developers (we would rather not name the people, but they do exist). █
SCO Roundup: SCO Group Receives a $2 Million Cash Infusion
Summary: News from the SCO case, including a few major developments
• Novell’s Motion to Allow Evidence: SCO Opened the Door
Yesterday, at the end of the day at the trial of SCO v. Novell, there was a discussion of whether certain evidence could be let in after all, due to something SCO said. Judge Ted Stewart asked Novell to put it in the form of a motion, and they have.
SCO accused Novell in its opening argument four times of slander of title “to this very day”. And in questioning Duff Thompson yesterday, the lawyer asked him if he saw evidence of slander of title to the present, and he said yes. It indicates a desire for damages covering the entire time period.
• First Week of SCO v Novell Jury Trial
• Monday’s Bankruptcy Hearing Rescheduled for April 7 at 3 PM
• Novell’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari – as text
• SCO vs. Linux: From the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court
The trial between the SCO Group and Novell over the question of whether or not the copyrights to Unix were sold together with the Unix distribution rights has taken another turn. As many SCO witnesses gave hearsay evidence during the oral hearing at the Court of Appeals, Novell filed a petition with the Tenth Circuit Supreme Court. Novell has asked the Supreme Court to clarify whether a copyright is inherently included in a transfer of software distribution rights or whether a distribution contract leaves it up to the buyer to determine which of the copyrights that aren’t explicitly mentioned are transferred.
• Jury picked and trial commences in SCO v. Novell UNIX code copyright ownership dispute
• SCO Group Gets $2M In Funding (see the press release: “The SCO Group Announces $2 Million in Financing”)
• SCO secures funding to preserve company during bankruptcy
The company said that the financing is intended to allow for the preservation of the value of the company’s business while enabling it to proceed with asset sales, support its customer base and pursue litigation against several companies including Novell and IBM.
• SCO Responds to Novell’s Motion to Allow Evidence
• Judge Denies 2 Novell Motions: for Mistrial and to Allow Evidence
• Week 2, Day 6 of SCO v. Novell Trial – The Mistrial Motion, Kim Madsen, Steve Sabbath, Darl McBride
• Novell files Offer of Proof Re Prior Inconsistent Declaration of Sabbath
• Ouch! Judge Stewart denies the jury access to important evidence.
Two of SCOGs witnesses in SCO v Novell contradicted each other between testimony and deposition and Judge Stewart is denying Novell the opportunity to inform the jury of that contradiction. That seems unfair on its face. Novell moved for a mistrial and was denied that as well. You can follow the details on GROKLAW. I was beginning to think the judge was being even-handed but this seems outrageous. SCOG’s case is falling apart and Novell cannot show the obvious holes to the jury. The final instructions to the jury will be drawn up by Judge stewart after submissions by SCOG and Novell. With this apparent bias, there is a huge opportunity for unfairness to lead the jury astray. Perhaps this will correct itself in a sound finding by the jury but without all the relevant evidence they may not be advised to view SCOG’s foot-guns in perspective.
• First week of SCO-Novell trial focused on contract language
• Ex-SCO CEO testifies Novell claim inflicted harm
• Ex-SCO CEO: Novell elusive about IBM link
Novell’s ownership claims were timed to coincide with SCO releases of record earnings, which meant that instead of seeing its stock price jump, SCO’s share value declined, said McBride, who was fired as CEO in October by the bankruptcy trustee.
• Week 2, Day 7 of SCO v. Novell Trial – More McBride and Botosan Opens a Door – Updated
• Novell Anticipates Objections to SCO’s Experts’ Testimonies – The TK-7 Case
• SCO’s Motion to Allow Testimony
• Week 2, Day 8 of SCO v. Novell Trial – McBride’s Admission and Pisano – Updated
• New Proposed Jury Instructions and Novell Tries Again on Prior Ct. Rulings
• Week 2, Day 9 of SCO v. Novell Trial – Jury Hears About Kimball’s Rulings and Botosan – Updated [Slashdot submission]
• Novell to present case in trial against SCO Group
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Novell Staff Shrank by ~10% and Hovsepian Allegedly Plays Hard to Get With Elliott Associates
Summary: It’s rutting season for Novell’s Ron Hovsepian and Elliott Associates’ Singer as the company keeps diminishing but wants to be valued more generously
Based on this new post from Novell’s CMO (John Dragoon), Novell has just 3,600 employees. That’s about 300 employees less than last year and it exceeds the cuts which Novell announced last year, so the numbers surprise us somewhat. It wasn’t announced or disclosed based on what we could find (and we look very carefully at everything about Novell). Novell had laid off many developers of Linux. Luc continues to make good contributions to kernel space. It’s just a shame that Novell focuses more on Mono and Moonlight and less on Linux, so it let Luc go (despite his great value).
“Novell had laid off many developers of Linux.”Novell is a confused and schizophrenic company. If Novell keeps shrinking at this pace, its value in the eyes on the hedge fund is likely to decline, not increase. At the moment, Novell plays hard to get (as expected by Andy Updegrove for example) in order to change the bid/price. We cannot confirm if this is authentic (no verification yet), but the timing makes sense; it comes just ahead of BrainShare in order to instill confidence in the minds of attendees.
Someone called “FlyingGuy” writes “In an e-mail sent to partners and VARS ( of which I am one ), CEO Ron Hovsepian sent the the following:”
Dear Valued Partner,
As you may know, on March 2nd, Elliott Associates, L.P. announced an unsolicited, conditional proposal to acquire Novell. Today we issued a press release announcing that our Board of Directors has concluded, after careful consideration, including a review of the proposal with its independent financial and legal advisors, that Elliott’s proposal is inadequate and that it undervalues the Company’s franchise and growth prospects.
Additionally, we announced that our Board has authorized a thorough review of various alternatives to enhance stockholder value.
Our relationship with you is extremely important to all of us at Novell, and I want to assure you that you can remain confident that we are committed to serving you as we always have. I also want to reaffirm to you that it remains business as usual at Novell, and we do not intend for there to be any changes in our relationship with you. Please do not hesitate to contact me or other members of our team at any time; we always strive to be available to provide you the best solutions for your needs.
On behalf of the Board and management team, I thank you for your ongoing commitment to Novell.
Sincerely,
Ron Hovsepian
President and CEO
If true and authentic, then it’s not the end of the story, it’s just negotiation tactics. Novell’s knees could eventually buckle just like Yahoo’s. Singer’s vulture fund says that it won't sell Novell in pieces and Hovsepian’s issue is one of price. The wording indicates this. Up the ante? █
Novell News Summary – Part III: Clarifications from Elliott Associates, Hosted Conferencing, and BrainShare 20TEN
Summary: Elliott Associates still insists that Novell will stay in tact; Utah prepares for the annual Novell pilgrimage
EXCEPT for many articles about the SCO case, Novell hardly appeared in the news. There’s this one new case study and also an analytical report of many companies that include Novell:
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Novell News Summary – Part II: IBM, Novell, SUSE Appliances, and Ingres
Summary: News about SLES, especially as an appliance but also as a server that IBM commonly uses
SUSE (SLES)
THE NEXT WEEK will bring announcements about SLE*, but this week was mostly quiet. Here is a new video of the Novell SUSE Appliance product launch.
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Novell News Summary – Part I: FLISOL 2010, Linux Tage 2010, and OpenSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3
Summary: Another restful week for “Geeko” and some news from events that featured OpenSUSE
THE coming week promises to be packed with events, but this week was a quiet one for OpenSUSE.
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Patents Roundup: Android/Linux Defended by HTC; Monsanto and Ghana
Cher Wang, Chairwoman of HTC (source)
Summary: News about patents where the system has gone awry (the Apple-HTC case and GMO in Africa)
Android/Linux
YESTERDAY we highlighted HTC's press release where it responded to Apple’s lawsuit against Android [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] (and few argue Chrome OS too, which makes GNU/Linux a target as well). There is some press coverage based on this press release, including:
- HTC ‘Disagrees Strongly’ With Apple’s Patent Claims
- HTC to Fight Apple Patent Suits
- HTC Responds to Apple’s Patent Lawsuit, Rejects Accusations
- HTC Vows To Fight Apple Suit
- HTC fires back at Apple patent complaint
- HTC to fight against Apple’s lawsuit
- HTC Feels Insulted by Steve Jobs
- HTC: Hey Apple, You Are So Wrong
- HTC Vows to Defend Against Apple Patent Suit
- HTC Boss Slams Apple Lawsuit
- HTC ‘Disagrees’ With Apple Suit, Vows Fight
- HTC claims innovations long before Apple’s patents
- Nokia and Apple begin long haul to court over patents dispute
- HTC hits Apple with wet noodles
- HTC says it will fight Apple suit
Microsoft supports Apple’s action [1, 2, 3], which is already casting some shadow on Android. Take this new article for example. It’s about Virgin Media and it says:
Google launched its first Android phone in September 2008, and since then it’s become a favoured platform for smartphone enthusiasts. Earlier this month Apple took steps to sue HTC over its range of smartphones with Google software over allegations of infringing hardware and software patents, but it’s a platform that only seems to be gaining momentum over time.
Now that Google prepares a product for television viewing (it uses Android), one might wish to recall Microsoft's recent lawsuit against TiVo (which uses Linux). The following news may be of interest:
Verizon Figures If It’s Already Involved In A Patent Lawsuit With TiVo, Why Not Sue Cablevision For Its DVR Too
[...]
Ah, the patent wars. As you’re probably aware, TiVo spent years fighting a big legal battle with EchoStar/Dish Networks over some patents on DVR technology. TiVo won big, and then immediately turned its patent lawyers on some other companies including Verizon. In Verizon’s response to TiVo’s lawsuit, it went nuclear back, accusing TiVo of violating Verizon’s patents on DVR technology — including a patent that the world’s biggest patent hoarding firm, Intellectual Ventures, gave Verizon for the purpose of being used against TiVo.
Seeds
A new article from Salon sheds light on the effect of genetic engineering (read: patents encumbrances) on Ghana:
In the case of GMOs we are dealing with a remarkable concentration of intellectual property ownership in just a handful of corporations. Like all well-endowed corporate actors, these companies do not shy from vigorously lobbying governments in favor of putting into place place legal frameworks that are designed to maximize profits and minimize caution.
[...]
If you google Ghana and genetically modified crops, you will very quickly run into the name Walter Alhassan, a consultant for the Accra-based Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and a strong advocate for the position that Ghana’s government “needs to speed up the passage of the Biosafety Bill to the global trend to improve agriculture and food security.”
Glyn Moody added (based on the above):
I’m conscious that I’ve written a lot of negative posts about genetically-modified organisms on this blog. That might lead readers to believe I’m against them. That’s not the case: I am naturally pro-technology, and GMOs are potentially an important tool for addressing many of the world’s most pressing problems. But I have my concerns, and I was pleased to find that Salon’s Andrew Leonard not only shares them, but has expressed them rather well:
I don’t actually have a position on whether GMOs are by definition good or bad for the environment or human health or even the challenge of alleviating hunger in the developing world. My basic stance, in fact, is pro-science: I believe technological advances have greatly advanced human health and affluence, and will continue to do so, if properly regulated. My concern re GMOs has always stemmed from a profound skepticism that profit-seeking corporations can be trusted to responsibly serve the public good. One need look only at the constant stream of reports detailing unethical and criminal behavior by major pharmaceutical companies to realize that this is hardly a hypothetical concern.
In the case of GMOs we are dealing with a remarkable concentration of intellectual property ownership in just a handful of corporations. Like all well-endowed corporate actors, these companies do not shy from vigorously lobbying governments in favor of putting into place place legal frameworks that are designed to maximize profits and minimize caution.
Earlier this month, Greenpeace revealed that Switzerland stays away from genetic engineering. What do they know that others do not know? It’s possible that genetically engineered crops are overall not better, they just happen to be owned by a corporation that markets them as “better” (so it’s privatisation of nature).
The Swiss Parliament has just extended its ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) plants for three more years. Originally enacted in 2005, Switzerland will stay GE-free until at least 2013.
As we pointed out before, with its support and investments in Monsanto, the Gates Foundation continues to show its patent agenda that puts African lives at risk (Microsoft does the same type of thing that creates dependence). Bill Gates’ attempts to promote Monsanto in India are still met with skepticism and there is even a lawsuit because Monsanto is a pact of bullies who spread experimental, patents-encumbered seeds just to expand their monopoly. We’ve covered the subject in many posts, such as those that we list below. █
Related posts (about Monsanto):
- Gates-Backed Company Accused of Monopoly Abuse and Investigated
- How the Gates Foundation Privatises Africa
- Reader’s Article: The Gates Foundation and Genetically-Modified Foods
- Monsanto: The Microsoft of Food
- Seeds of Doubt in Bill Gates Investments
- Gates Foundation Accused of Faking/Fabricating Data to Advance Political Goals
- More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
- Video Transcript of Vandana Shiva on Insane Patents
- Explanation of What Bill Gates’ Patent Investments Do to Developing World
- Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems
- Gates Foundation Looking to Destroy Kenya with Intellectual Monopolies
- Young Napoleon Comes to Africa and Told Off
- Bill Gates Takes His GMO Patent Investments/Experiments to India
- Gates/Microsoft Tax Dodge and Agriculture Monopoly Revisited
- Beyond the ‘Public Relations’
- UK Intellectual Monopoly Office (UK-IPO) May be Breaking the Law
- “Boycott Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China”
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