Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Real Story Behind the Novell/Microsoft Deal or Just a Conspiracy

Microsoft Novell



The following new article sheds some light on an important aspects of the Novell/Microsoft deal. It appeared earlier today in the Financial Times:

The two companies linked arms once in 2006 when Microsoft wrote Novell a check for USD 348m. The move was designed to show the company is not a monopolist, said Levitt.


Be aware that IDC is little more than a Microsoft-dependent firm [1, 2], so its words must be taken with a great degree of caution. Nevertheless, there is an element of truth therein.

A reader contacted us earlier and his message was enlightening.




Do you remember after the shady deal http://mp3.com.com/Microsoft+makes+Linux+pact+with+Novell/2100-1016_3-6132119.html a novell manager got hired by Microsoft ? Looks suspicious, don't you think ? I don't find the story anymore. Do you have it ?




Thoughts come to mind about burial, withdrawal and manipulation of search engines or articles [1, 2] (information control), but can anyone remember the name of that manager? It predates the creation of a joint interoperability lab and it may suggest that an inside affair was involved in making the Microsoft/Novell deal happen. We already have some details about the story, which we extracted from the audiocast delivered by Dan Bricklin.

“Be aware of the fact that Microsoft had its own General Manager in charge (to an extent) of XenSource before using Citrix to virtually 'steal' it and put Xen in the dustbin.”We last mentioned this about a week, but we wish to find out more about Justin Steinman's employment history. We also wish to find out which Novell employees were hired by Microsoft just before and after the deal. If Crispin Cowan worked on AppArmor while at Novell, then that's an example which is only 3-weeks old, so it is probably of little or no relevance.

Be aware of the fact that Microsoft put its own General Manager in charge (to an extent) of XenSource before using Citrix to virtually 'steal' it and put Xen in the dustbin. Then you have the recent news about Microsoft's plan to steal/hijack Yahoo in a hostile fashion. This is not far-fetched; it's often strategic.

We have been looking for potential Novell/Microsoft 'insiders', so in case you know any, please speak out. Groklaw suggests that Justin Steinman might be one of the men to look into because he occupies a role in both companies and he is sometimes held responsible/accountable for a lot of this uncomfortable situation.

There might be more to this mess than a small group of people. Watch the sample of comments posted to the OpenSUSE mailing list. People are still unhappy and there is a serious issue of mistrust that Novell is trying quite hard to wash away.

Our reader, who shared quite a few insights, adds:




[I] Did not know this, [and it's] interesting and fits the systematic corruption, but what i remember went the other way round: The Novell manager got a job at Microsoft i thought as a reward for making the deal.




What the reader may or may not know about are Ron Hovsepian's bonuses which came shortly after he had signed the deal. We saw a similar pattern later on.

It's a bit of a post mortem really, but Novell's recent actions expose a lot. Some questions that still need to be addressed and answered are centered around employment, communication and possible exchange of money. Judging by the past, there is little or no reason for Novell and Microsoft to be friends, but what if an influenced (by the outside) leader was put in place? Look again at the XenSource and Yahoo examples.

We still have an article that is very damaging to Novell and we cannot quite publish it yet because of possible implications (it's not safe). It will probably come out one day. We are close to finding some big answers.

Recent Techrights' Posts

BetaNews Has Basically Become a Spamfarm, All the Latest 'Articles' Are SPAM and LLM Slop
No kidding...
On BetaNews Latest Technology News: "We are moderately confident this text was [LLM Chatbot] generated"
The future of newsrooms or another site circling down the drain with spam, slop, or both?
 
[Meme] Removing Correct Information
publish what's true
President Biden Has Less Than a Fortnight Left to Pardon Julian Assange (Donald Trump's Regime Plotted to Assassinate Assange)
Don't try to lecture/explain/preach to people that exposing corruption, resisting corruption, and merely covering corruption is "bad" because crime "is everywhere"
From 92% to Less Than 25%: How Microsoft Lost Norway (and Still Loses What's Left)
just like in most countries
Matt Birchler: "This is why it’s important for people to own their presence on the web, especially when it comes to government agencies that need to communicate with people."
hours ago
Microsoft Continues to Attack Users' Choice
We're being herded into uniformity
Diversity of Views, Diversity of Sources
We want diversity, not monopoly
With 10 Days Left the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Looks to Raise Just Over $50,000 More
More than 10 days in Boston (eastern coast)
In Europe, Russia's Yandex About to Become Bigger Than Microsoft's Bing, Google Search Estimated to Have Grown Since the LLM Hype Began
Remember that Bing had many layoffs in the past 2 years, the corporate media barely reported on those
The Google Exodus That Wasn't
Search engines exist to serve their masters, not their users
Google (Blogger) is Already Disintegrating and It's a Reminder of the Great Dangers of Outsourcing Blogs to Companies (Including Automattic or WordPress.com)
Plus, Phoronix admits that using PHP - and not static pages - causes the Web site to be DDOSed, sort of
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 06, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, January 06, 2025
Links 06/01/2025: Presidential Arrest and Kursk as Bargaining Card
Links for the day
Links 06/01/2025: Cyber Security in 2025 Still a Joke (Undermined by Authorities Themselves), US Layoffs 2025 Commence Today
Links for the day
Links 06/01/2025: Security Theatre and BBS Archives
Links for the day
[Meme] Don't Worry, They Say There's 7 Trillion Dollars Waiting at the Top
At whose expense? With whose consent?
Fedora Seems to be Dying of Neglect by IBM
IBM is doing to Fedora what it did to CentOS. It's still there, but only/mostly by name.
TRILLIONS! And TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS! Invest today!
If the mainstream media and national broadcasters know (and can see) it's a pyramid scheme, why aren't they calling it?
[Meme] A Corporate Wolf in Sheep Clothing
Will Apple "fans" pay attention? Will they even care?
British Police: Register a New Account With Unscrupulous American Companies (Microsoft and MElon X) to "Follow" Us
When authorities outsource to foreign social control media
Links 06/01/2025: Leftover General News and Dangers of US Debt Default
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 05, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, January 05, 2025
Gemini Links 06/01/2025: End of Christmas, New Leaves and Fresh Starts
Links for the day
Edward Snowden Has Had a State But Not a Voice for 10 Years in Russia
Edward Snowden cannot say anything "bold" about the regime, the war etc.
statCounter's 2025 Data: Windows Sinks to All-Time Low in Switzerland
Microsoft is not well positioned to recover from the demise of Windows
Microsoft is Still Waging a War on GNU/Linux (at the OEM Level), It Loves Windows
The FSF would be wise to remind people of the "OEM factor"
Credit to Jessica Lyons at The Register for Covering the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), Proving That Authorities Do Not Want and Probably Never Wanted Computer Security (Except for Themselves)
We have a lot more to say about truly secure programs
No, Microsoft Does Not Invest $80B in Hey Hi (AI), It's Just Full of BS, Lies, and Over $80B in Debt
Expect many more of those fake numbers and fake promises
Links 05/01/2025: Crises in South Korea and Endgame (TCO) of Back Doors
Links for the day
Links 05/01/2025: Math on Checkerboard and Nazi-linked Accounts at Credit Suisse
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/01/2025: Extended File Requests With NNCP and New Palm OS Game in 2025
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 04, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, January 04, 2025