Novell boss in semi-apology over Microsoft pact

Quoting:"I know the deal we did with Microsoft caused a lot of noise and flack in the market," Hovsepian told OSBC on Tuesday. "And I wish I'd done a better job of communicating that. But the thing that caught in my head was the customer.

Who is creating the noise and flack in the market? Isn't the market where your customers reside? If the noise isn't coming from your potential customers, why do you care? A more likely explanation is that Novell's handling of the situation cost the company some business. If you say, "Windows is for idiots" you will turn off some of your customers. Novell's telling FOSS fans, "Up yours hippie freaks" probably turned off some customers.

I've never believed the deal was bad for FOSS but I've always believed that Novell's handling of the deal makes for a great case study in how not to run a business. Novell was arrogant when the deal was made, and I do not see how it would have hurt to be open and acknowledge the patents issue, and explain their position.

Quoting:I've always believed that Novell's handling of the deal makes for a great case study in how not to run a business.

Just the handling of the case? I think there's much more to point out at Novell for a boat load of such case studies :-)

I'm still in love with their announcement that "Microsoft didn't sell any Linux for us last quarter, and then we forgot to do it ourselves, hmm, weird huh" from last month. Priceless. You can't make this stuff up.

bigg: 100% agree with you.