Having Added Mono and OOXML to OpenOffice.org, Novell Wants to Cash in and Give Patents to Microsoft

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-04-21 18:10:12 UTC
Modified: 2011-04-21 18:10:12 UTC

Summary: Novell may be days away from approval of being acquired by AttachMSFT and passing almost 1,000 patents to Microsoft; in the mean time, Novell wants to monetise the project it polluted, forked, and to some extent wrecked

NOVELL is a proprietary software company which thinks like a proprietary software company but markets itself as an open source software company or a "Linux company". Some journalists fall for it and propagate the illusion, even though Novell's contributions to OpenOffice.org, for example, can almost be summarised as "adding the features Microsoft paid us to add to OpenOffice.org" (antifeatures like OOXML, which helped Microsoft ram is down ISO's throat). Novell tries monetising Sun's work to which they added OOXML and other such antifeatures. And who can ever forget Novell's Windows-only OpenOffice releases?

"Will Novell give its OpenOffice.org-related software patents to Microsoft now?"Based on Michael Applebaum's latest PR piece, Novell's marketers are back to their odd buzzterm, "agility", as well as "cloud computing" (more on Fog Computing in this other PR post) and of course "innovation", the bigger word for "invention" and sometimes a synonym or eurphemism for "patent" (which itself is a euphemism for monopoly). What ever happened to "open source" at Novell? It dissipated after the Microsoft deal.

Novell can go on and on about award nominations (for obscure awards like the CODiE we mentioned the other day), reviews and "success stories", but the company is a total failure which now feeds Microsoft and some other foes of GNU/Linux with Linux-hostile patents. A lot of pressure is being put on regulatory agencies to stop the CPTN deal, but the OSI and FSF forget to place a lot of the blame and the pressure where it fits (more on that important subject will come later). The main problem is Novell, which could theoretically still withdraw its CPTN deal. Instead, Novell is eager to just sell its patents to Microsoft as soon as possible and an acquisition by attachMSFT is scheduled for 6 days from now, based on Novell. Nobody even raises the question about Novell's motives. The issue was deflected by spin. Remember what we wrote in 2006 about Novell as a patent minefield in OpenOffice.org. Will Novell give its OpenOffice.org-related software patents to Microsoft now? Boycott Novell. ⬆

ITwire Became Slop and Spam: The site still exists, but it's not what it used to be
W3C Died 20 Years Ago, Now We Live in a Post-W3C Era. Linux Foundation is 'Slop Bros', Now Linux is Becoming Unfree.: Torvalds is on the same side as Epsteingate
Linux Kernel to Hide the Slop to Avoid Backlash, Suggestion Made by Former Microsoft Employee While Another Former Microsoft Employee is Worst Slopper/Culprit in Linux: Did Torvalds listen to slop antagonists?
Microsoft Shutdowns in Africa, Mass Layoffs Also Reported This Week: further shutdowns
Links 13/10/2026: More Plagiarism Lawsuit Over Slop and AirAsia Needs State Help: Links for the day
Intercontinental Brigading - Part II - An Outline of This Series: What's to come
Microsoft Demands That Staff Keeps Silent About the Mass Layoffs: Way to cause anger and ensure whistleblowers will go to the media
Microsoft Has Had Mass Layoffs in Azure Every Year Since 2020 and the Bleeding Continues Because It Misreports Earnings There: This is a bad week for Microsoft
Microsoft's International Mass Layoffs (Asia, Europe, Africa), Now Vietnam: A crisis that Microsoft is unable to hide
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 13, 2026: IRC logs for Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Gemini Links 14/10/2026: Ceiling Fan, Fascism, Democracy, and Slop Being a Huge Bubble: Links for the day
Reports of Stress and Layoffs at Microsoft, Some People Laid Off Under the Guise of "Ban" (Gift From the Administration) and Many Sacked in India: "pip and gvsa" layoffs in India
We're Way Past the Point Where Companies Announce or Declare Mass Layoffs: Layoffs are becoming hidden
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Besieged by Blind Justice UK, Politicians Increasingly Involved: "Today we have written to Members of both Houses of Parliament"
Vance Has Helped Microsoft Implement Secret, Silent Layoffs: Nothing excites Microsoft more than means by which to discard many employees without an obligation to tell shareholders about it
To The Register MS, Microsoft is the Only Brand That's at the Main Menu!: Consider that the Editor of The Register MS is a longtime faithful Microsofter
Microsoft's Collapse Will Continue, It's Drowning in Debt Now: Expect many more mass layoffs
Legal Self-Sufficiency: The more impact our work has, the more legal bullying will come our way
Plans for Winter in Manchester and London: From many perspectives, we're satisfied with the certainty and robustness of UK hosting, it's just that we're not yet robust/resistant enough to DDoS attacks
Customer Support Experience in 2026: Because the customer is never right
Gemini Links 13/10/2026: Dopamine Nation, Planner and Fatigue, and Moderators: Links for the day
Links 13/10/2026: Norway Fines Microsoft and Cops Can Creep on Airbnb: Links for the day
When Computers "Expire" Because Certificates Expire: People who promote Restricted Boot are liars. They lie for a living.
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 12, 2026: IRC logs for Monday, October 12, 2026
Gemini Links 13/10/2026: Modern Science, Joplin, Luddites, and Lots More: Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Again (October 2026), So-Called 'AI' Units Impacted Because Slop ('AI') Has No Real Future: So much for the future of Microsoft being "hey hi" (AI)
European Readers, Please Contact Representatives (in One's Nation) Attending the Administrative Council Meeting: Normalising cocaine in in Europe's largest institutions (the people running these) is a slippery slope
Network Plumbing: We hope it'll help speed things up
For Half a Year the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Has Had Water Problems in the Toilets: And it's not being fixed
Intercontinental Brigading - Part I - The Failed Attempt to 'Swat' Our Series About the Attacks and Crimes Committed Against Us: This coincided with threats to our lives
Links 12/10/2026: Strike on Riyadh and GOP Pays Voters ("Surprise $90 Social Security Payments"): Links for the day
Microsoft's XBox CEO Spoke of a "Return to Growth" Last Week, But XBox Sales Lowest in XBox History (Quarter of a Century): Microsoft's XBox is dying. It's a countdown to nothingness.
Links 12/10/2026: Shopify (Slop Booster) Has Security Issues, "Russia’s Yandex Says Data Center in Vladimir Shut Down After Drone Attack": Links for the day
"My Hands Are Shaking While Writing" About IBM's Mass Layoffs at Red Hat (Bluewashing): Shame, shame, shame on the corporate media for not covering Red Hat's layoffs this year
Taking a Look at the Last Articles of Bob Cringely at Forbes, They Were All About IBM and Its Collapse: It's all about IBM
Microsoft Windows Causes Problems (and Delays) to LibreOffice and The Document Foundation: Nothing would please Microsoft more than Windows curtailing the development of LibreOffice and adoption of ODF
So Far This Year Microsoft Windows Lost a Lot of Ground in China, GNU/Linux Gaining at Its Expense: GNU/Linux will soon exceed 10%
Lessons of Margaret Hamilton (Software Engineer): Stop abetting men who attack women in the sciences
RIP, Bob Cringely: He was too young to leave us, his articles were still brilliant and his mind as lucid as ever
What is "Computer Science"? It is What Broligarchs Reject.: Nowadays some people call themselves informal terms or made-up titles (with terms like "AI" or "big data" or "data" tossed into the mix)
Linus Torvalds Has a Conflict of Interest Regarding Slop: Linus Torvalds is paid by the slop pushers
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 11, 2026: IRC logs for Sunday, October 11, 2026
Africa Sees GNU/Linux Exceeding 5% "Market Share": It wasn't always like this. It used to be measured at 1 or 2 percent.
Brigading Against Women - Part XXVII - Americans and Public Executions: "People who work for Facebook / Xitter / Bytedance's Tiktok / Microsoft / Oracle / IBM / Apple / Uber / Lyft / Wolt / DoorDash / AirBnB / Bolt / and so on are doing some world-class projection when they have the audacity to call others Bad People(tm)"

Having Added Mono and OOXML to OpenOffice.org, Novell Wants to Cash in and Give Patents to Microsoft

Recent Techrights' Posts