It would be foolish, if not downright naive, to assume that Novell can regain its positive image from the Free software community. As time goes by, Novell ties itself to more actions which lead to backlash. It is clear that there is no going back now. If anything, the resentment may lead to greater distance between the company and the community that used to cherish it. This is better exemplified by this article from InformationWeek.

With the controversy still alive and Novell still in a fight for its life, there's no reason to expect Hovsepian will get too comfortable in the months ahead.

If you thought that the patent threats -- however baseless -- are actually behind because Steve Ballmer has not spoken for a while, think again.

The irony of the GPL is that Microsoft is not bound by it, and the only entities that can be harmed by it are those who benefit from it – open source vendors. Enforcing the GPL would mean that Novell, and any other Linux vendor who agrees to Microsoft's terms, could be forced to stop distributing Linux – which is just what Microsoft wants.

I opine that we are yet to see another wave of attacks. The tighter the squeeze that GNU/Linux applies, the less ethical Microsoft will become in its exploitation of Novell (more latterly OpenXML servitude). This follows a destructive and self-serving path, e.g. 'interoperability' bargaining card, neglect of Hula and so forth.