Bonum Certa Men Certa

The WordPerfect Lawsuit and the Abused Wife Called Novell

Pathetic.

That would be the word that best describes Novell, especially at times when Microsoft tries to erase its past crimes. And Novell is just letting it be. Novell not only forgives Microsoft, but it also promotes Microsoft technologies such as .NET and OOXML. Novell even fuels Microsoft's patent FUD against Linux in order to market itself. There is nothing that Novell won't do for Microsoft.

Pathetic is a weak word. Suicidal morelike.

Here is what Matt Asay has just had to say about "The bizarre relationship that is Novell + Microsoft".

Here's just a taste:
In an email dated October 3, 199, however, Bill Gates ordered his top executives to retract the documentation of the browsing extensions, but only until Microsoft's own developers of the Office suite of applications had sufficient time to work with the hidden extensions to build an insurmountable advantage over competitors such as WordPerfect. Gates further explained that without this advantage, Office would not compete with the major ISVs.
This is just the sort of company that I'd want to bet my Linux business upon. Wouldn't you?

Point well taken that it's a heterogeneous world that requires odd pairings of companies. But given Novell's understanding of just how bad Microsoft can be, is a partnership the best way to reward that behavior?


Asay is pointing to this new article from the Register.

Microsoft is asking the Supreme Court to strike-out a multi-billion dollar word processing monopoly lawsuit from Novell.

[...]

On the day the lawsuit was filed, Microsoft blamed WordPerfect's downward spiral on "poor business decisions" and "mismanagement" by Novell.


There is also this brief:

WordPerfect, a once-popular software program, is making something of a comeback - this time as Exhibit A in Novell Inc.’s multibillion-dollar antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp. Novell briefly owned WordPerfect in the mid-1990s and says Microsoft’s anti-competitive tactics undermined the product. WordPerfect’s share of the word-processing market.


It was only days ago that we mentioned the Bloomberg article that started it all and two days later Novell's Dragoon published an article actually praising this ludicrous relationship and arrangement.

Novell has competed with Microsoft over software business for more than two decades with products including its Linux-based operating system, SUSE Linux Enterprise, which competes directly with Microsoft’s Windows.

The two companies remain competitors today, with one main difference: They created an agreement in 2006 that allows their operating systems to coexist on the same computer. The deal involved joint marketing, technical and patent collaborations.

[...]

So, where do you start when you must market products with the enemy? Dragoon suggests looking at four distinct areas: - Focus first on the overall agreement. - Gather the right employees to develop the marketing plan. - Stay competitive in the rest of your marketing. - Prepare for a PR backlash.


Moses supposes you smell the roses. Novell, didn't you learn your lesson from WordPerfect? Or DR-DOS? The true story involved deliberate Microsoft sabotage. See this testimony for example. Hasn't Novell also learned from SCO, which is now burning Novell's money (see this SCO-Novell comic).

Jim Allchin on Novell

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October