Press jumps the gun

Summary: Novell does not want people to think that Microsoft has already acquired it; littering of YouTube resumes

THIS year's April Fool's Day was filled with pranks and Red Hat too was a victim. IDG insinuated that it was going proprietary. When it comes to Novell, however, the suggestion that Microsoft was buying it upset the company because the prank was 'too' believable. Here is the short story:

The idea that Microsoft would buy Novell isn't exactly that far-fetched. Events on April 1 have proved this.

A spoof run by iTWire, written by Linux expert David M. Williams, and headlined "Linux beware: Microsoft acquires Novell, become UNIX copyright owner", was sufficient to cause a few people to call Novell in the US and inquire if there was some truth to the story.

Novell PR chief Ian Bruce phoned iTWire and asked that the story be retracted. iTWire editor Stan Beer had to add a paragraph to the story to state emphatically that it was an April Fool's joke.

[...]

He replied: "I wasn't angry. Unfortunately, your story was so well done as a spoof it got picked up in the US and we actually had a couple of calls. Amazing, I know. The headline did it, I think. Sorry for the alarm."

That people took such a story seriously tells us more about Novell, Microsoft and the public impression that the infamous patent contract has created, than any of the articles that have been written analysing, criticising or praising the deal.

So, here are Novell's marketing people trying to remove 'bad' publicity despite the fact that it's obviously a joke and almost every large company is a victim of such jokes.

It ought to be added that, based on what we found yesterday, Novell keeps flooding YouTube with corporate brainwash, so there's a tinge of hypocrisy in its acts regrading publicity. Yesterday alone we found someone called "Phil" shoving an extraordinary amount of Novell advertisements into YouTube. "Phil" apparently describes himself based on his employer, saying that "PJA creates marketing as innovative and inspirational as your technology and science." It also says "Interests and Hobbies: BtoB Advertising and Marketing." Has Novell hired these people to do this? Why can't Novell leave YouTube alone? As evidence of this latest mass insertion of marketing material, here are the videos which "Phil" added yesterday:

• Novell Code 11 Baggage Banner





• Novell Code 11 Bolts Banner





• Novell Ubiquity





• Novell Code 11 SIXTY







• Novell Mission Critical







• Novell Interop Lobby





• Novell Interop Retail







• Novell Interop WindTunnel

Also worth adding is the fact that the Microsoft press (Redmond Developer) has just added webcasts that promote the Microsoft-taxed SLES. There are two of them. ⬆