Bonum Certa Men Certa

Could Microsoft Use Novell for Infighting, Forking, and Distraction?

Keeping developers helpless and divided

SEVERAL Web sites accentuate issues of disagreement which are related to OpenOffice.org. Here is just one new example. They are using old news [1, 2, 3] and sometimes promote Novell's fork the software [1, 2, 3, 4].

“It's the same with GNOME and KDE; mutual damage helps nobody but the outsider, in this case Microsoft.”Infighting that's led by Microsoft is an issue that we covered before, using examples. Those who look at Microsoft's "TE" material will find that causing 'civil wars' is one of their key strategies (finding sources of friction, then stirring things up), so by funding Novell and enabling/having them fork and insult OpenOffice.org they distract their competitors, who will fight among themselves rather than against Microsoft Office. It's the same with GNOME and KDE; mutual damage helps nobody but the outsider, in this case Microsoft.

So where is it all coming from? Well, it mostly comes from Novell and it successfully penetrates and deceives some reporters, who fail to see the full picture:

And about this "we, the media" thing you brought up: Meeks has a conflict of interest that you don't do a particularly good job of pointing out. If he works for Novell and Novell is in bed with MSFT, why should we simply take him at his word without questioning whether he has any vested interest one way or the other as to the corporate "sponsor(s)" of OpenOffice? Does this relationship have anything to do at all with Sun's "difficulty"? As a managing editor of a news outlet, this is something I'd take my team to task for failing point out in reporting. By "we, the media" you'd better mean you and the mouse in your hand.


It would be interesting if Novell tried to seize control of other Free software in the future. CUPS, for example, belongs to Apple now, but that's a wholly separate story.

Red face

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