Microsoft has agreed to a $536 million settlement with Novell stemming from long-standing anti-trust complaints. Of course, Microsoft admits no wrongdoing, as is the case with such settlements. This settlement does not cover some outstanding WordPerfect patent claims. Novell, who formerly owned WordPerfect, still intend to take Microsoft to court over that issue.
Settlements don’t feel right, especially in the case of Microsoft. They have settled so much over the years, but settling means that there’s no justice being done. The question of right or wrong is settled with a big case of money instead of an answer, and one could believe that MS has done no wrong in all these cases. I think it’s remarkable how most of the MS cases in the US have been settled, but the EU decided not to settle. As a member of the EU that gave me a good feeling, because if these greedy corporations do wrong, justice should be done, and money should not come first before that.
Well, that’s some good pocket change. It basically pays for the past acquisition of Ximian and Suse and leaves Novell with a nice enough war chest to do an aggressive marketing campaign for their just-released desktop product.
I hope they will invest some of this money in promising KDE/Gnome projects as a form of R&D. If Novell plays its cards right, it will have an incredible stack of technologies with which to compete in the marketplace.
I am particularly interested in seeing a greater push into multimedia. The Linux desktops needs a unified multimedia architecture and some killer apps. K3b is already there.
Amarok, Juk, Rhythmbox are all very promising. Now we need a legally distributed DVD player and a version of Real Player that plays more media formats. I never quite understood why it is that Real Player 10 for windows is much more versatile than RP 10 for Linux, given that they are built from the same code base.
Novell got $536 million and are planning to sue Microsoft some more? It seems they are looking forward to build a nice “frienship” with Microsoft. Maybe these suits will irritate Microsoft so much that they will start sueing over MONO.
Another thing that doesn’t smell right – Novell isn’t supporting the EU case against Microsoft anymore. It looks like they are quitting in the middle of it. Nice move, Novell!
People should start realising that Novell is like any other business, and like Microsoft to a certain degree. They are just trying to cover their asses. It’s not like their “raison d’etre” is to support and stand behind the open-source community. Do you think that Novell wouldn’t want to have a monopoly on the desktop, just like Microsoft? If they could, they would.
In business terms, ANY company is trying and wants to be were Microsoft is right now. When being a monopoly, then it means the company is very well ran (including dirty tricks).
“I never quite understood why it is that Real Player 10 for windows is much more versatile than RP 10 for Linux, given that they are built from the same code base.”
strange. what features are offered more?…
I know helix players lacks proprietary stuff that real player has but real in windows as well as linux seems to be the same to me..
This ranks right up there w/ SCO harassing linux users/vendors.
Oh well, modern business ethics dictate; If you can’t beat em’, sue em’ until you can’t sue em’ anymore.
We do have to keep trial lawyers in yachts, after all.
My opinion: If they had done nothing and if thy are innocent, they should pay NOTHING. Otherwise it looks like a guilty plea.
I hope so ! I hope they use this money to pay into the development of their desktop and Linux.
This is probally a bad move for Novell, Novell probally made a big enemy with microsoft… Why not just settle it another way..
How so ?? Because now Novell can’t come over and play at Microsoft’s house anymore ??? Please you think MS has any “friends” ?? You think any company has “friends” in the real world ??? Get real dude. This was a great move.
Microsoft would be forced to pay 536 Milloin $ to Be Inc. instead of Novell two years ago.
OMG – that would be great. Be spend about 20 Million $ to build up BeOS R5 within 6 years – unimaginably what they could build with 536 Millions.
No. lets not keep dreaming over a dead OS. lets do something productive like doing development on a not yet dead OS
They have settled so much over the years, but settling means that there’s no justice being done.
They are suing for money. Thats the only reason companies sue. The justice they seek is the money they feel they lost. Thats why they settle. Thats all they wanted in the first place.
I think it’s remarkable how most of the MS cases in the US have been settled, but the EU decided not to settle. As a member of the EU that gave me a good feeling, because if these greedy corporations do wrong, justice should be done, and money should not come first before that.
Its a question of right and wrong in relation to making money. This isn’t for humanity or the good of mankind. It has nothing to do with that.
Lawsuits are just a tool for business in this day and age. When your competitor gets more down and dirty than you do, you opt for the court action and take the role of the victim.
Its the new economy baby!
Microsoft would be forced to pay 536 Milloin $ to Be Inc. instead of Novell two years ago.
OMG – that would be great. Be spend about 20 Million $ to build up BeOS R5 within 6 years – unimaginably what they could build with 536 Millions
Big difference here. Novell actually had major products and a large customer base that they lost during the ‘war with MS’
Be didn’t have shit beyond a talented dev group and a couple groupies who loved the OS.
Big difference here. Novell actually had major products and a large customer base that they lost during the ‘war with MS’
I don’t know about that. Novell lost their opportunity. Microsoft outshined and out performed them all business wise. People need to study how to run businesses better to figure out what went wrong and to eventually take on microsoft.
Sadly, people neglected to do this due to their arrogance and microsoft gained the upper hand and were giants that were un-stoppable. Now we have linux and the likes and people are using it to kill windows.. i do not think any of these companies actually care about linux they just care about defeating microsoft.
Who do you think will pay for this ? Microsoft customers. If Microsoft wants to get lost money back, it can grow their product prices slightly, and almost noone will notice.
laughing at you… they already put it in their prices… they think ahead… gezzzzzzzz come on… laughing
Netware is the dead OS. Too bad Novell, Corel, Apple, and Sybase don’t merge. Those guys have the original technology “invented” by the original teams. Its too bad MS is able to divide and conquer each of them with a settlement.
Microsoft will get their money back from Novell a second time here. Balmer is likely already carrying the cigar he plans to smoke over Novells grave.
All this settlement really did was buy MS some additional time without the courts biting at their heels.
You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I was a MCNE at the time, mastered on NDS for NT, in fact. That was a fantastic product, could have brought the enterprise that standardized on NT and Microsoft Domans into the 22nd century. To understand why, you would first have to understand what NDS/eDirectory is, and what can do for you.
NDS for NT could have revolutionized the world of computers and networks, and quite frankly, our lives would be different today. Half a billion bucks is a lot, and still nothing compared to what Novell was looking at, had not Microsoft illegally cut them off.