02.02.09
IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: February 2nd, 2009 – Part 3
IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: February 2nd, 2009 – Part 2
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IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: February 2nd, 2009 – Part 1
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Novell News Summary – Part II: Heaps of Novell News
Provo
ALTHOUGH there were no particularly interesting or important items in the news, quite a few articles mentioned a Novell role, so here is a quick summary of occurrences.
A few days ago, The Var Guy compared Sun’s situation to Novell’s, arguing that there are parallels as follows:
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Novell News Summary – Part I: OpenSUSE and SLE*
OpenSUSE
TUXMACHINES has not been reachable via DNS for almost a week now and since it is a primary source of OpenSUSE news to us, there was not much that we managed to pick.
The EDGIfication of the Philippines
“Free” as in “free cigarettes”
WE WROTE QUITE EXTENSIVELY about EDGI, which comes in a variety of forms or variants (Microsoft has more than one acronym for this type of programme). We also happen to have covered the role of Biz/DreamSpark in the Philippines on numerous occasions before [1, 2], so we’ll abstain from repeating the analysis. Well, here is the latest development (gratis lock-in):
Microsoft Philippines on Thursday launched a new partnership program that allows local technology startups to use full-featured Microsoft development tools and production licenses with no upfront costs and very minimal requirements.
This is also covered here. Microsoft really wants to eradicate Free software in the Philippines. █
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Openbravo Should Avoid VMware’s Mistakes
Human Resources 101
Microsoft is approaching a Spanish Free software company (again). This time it’s Openbravo where Microsoft employees are being put, potentially to influence decisions in favour of Microsoft technologies, which is always the unfortunate side effect.
The Var Guy writes about this as though it’s a positive thing (probably not for GNU/Linux):
Two Microsoft Business Solutions veterans have joined Openbravo, a fast-growing provider of open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) and point of sale (POS) software. The moves signal growing momentum for business-centric open source applications. The news also highlights Openbravo’s continued investments in its IT channel partners.
A company which we already see being hijacked by Microsoft from the inside is VMware. We wrote about this before and now comes a more convincing article from Forbes Magazine. Watch the headline: “Bringing Microsoft To VMware”
Last summer, Paul Maritz was only hours into his new job as chief executive of VMware when he called Tod Nielsen, his former Microsoft colleague.
Nielsen, formerly Maritz’s right-hand man at Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) and chief executive of Borland Software (nasdaq: BORL – news – people ), talked with Maritz about Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory rules.
Article Controls“Paul was essentially the No. 3 person at Microsoft, in charge of all system software,” Nielsen says. “I was responsible for all the interactions with the developer community, for marketing and launching and evangelizing.”
How foolishly they let go. EMC is partly to blame, but being Microsoft’s partner of the year for 2008, it may feel the need to 'give' VMware to Microsoft. That’s just corporate diplomacy. █
Two Microsoft Partners Lay Off Employees (Novell and Citrix)
Novell-branded souvenirs: keep them while they
last (before they become memorabilia)
ON Saturday we referenced an erroneous report from Matt Asay (we have already corrected that post). It was based on incorrect sources and the following article sheds light on what exactly happened.
Open-source vendor Novell Inc. on Saturday confirmed reports that it had a layoff on Friday, though it said the layoffs were small and amounted to less than 3% of its workforce.
Novell spokesman Ian Bruce said the company laid off less than 100 out of 4,200 employees worldwide. He declined to say if the move came in response to slumping sales at the Waltham, Mass. firm.
The number of layoffs cited by Bruce is far smaller than the numbers bouncing around the Web Friday night. CNET blogger Matt Asay, for instance, reported that Novell had cut up to 1,000 employees, citing an inside source who claimed that “basically an across-the-board reduction of 25 percent” was made.
Citrix, which is in terms of its function almost a Microsoft subsidiary or division, is prepared to lay off 10% of its staff.
The workforce reductions will save Citrix about $50m a year in costs, and the company will book charges in the range of $19m to $23m, mostly in the first quarter of 2009, to cover the layoffs.
Guess who else is having hard (financial) times? Microsoft’s co-founder, who lost a great proportion of his wealth.
How do you lose $7 billion?
That’s a question for Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who has seen his massive investment in cable TV operator Charter Communications Inc. all but vanish.
The story is also covered here and here. This could, although not necessarily, add to Microsoft's own woes. █
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