The respectable Matthew Aslett, who is a Linux and Open Source advocate, certainly thinks so.

Dear Novell, please stop messing about with your Linux revenue figures. Thanks.

[...]

How can $13m be 32% more than $15m? What is the difference between “Linux platform products” and “Linux products and services”? I don’t know, but it is high time Novell stopped moving the goal posts and reported consistent figures for its Linux business.

[...]

1Q06
$56m “Open Platform Solutions”
(including $43m Open Enterprise Server and $13m “Linux Platform Products and other open source products”

2Q06
$57m “Open Platform Solutions”
(including $38m Open Enterprise Server and $10m “Linux Platform Products”

3Q06
$12m “Linux Platform Products”

4Q06
$13m “Linux Platform Products”

This looks pretty grim. In fact, it is also as grim as Microsoft’s attempt to hide reality using a $36 billion buyback, which gradually inflates the value of the stock.

PEN Source development is fast. Patching and development using this paradigm is particularly fast owing to modularity. Any change to the code is rather predictable within the isolated black (glass rather) boxes, so patches can be issued without laborious patching. Then comes the introduction of innovation and incorporation of code that leads to beautiful complex systems (video) very rapidly.

See video! Really, please do. I’m waiting. After I had wiped the coffee off my screen and keyboard from the excitement (well, figuratively-speaking), I came to realise that another trait of Open Source development is that it’s very responsive to user demands and needs. It’s nice to be able to submit a feature request of a bug or a patch to a project and then receive it from the development team the next cycle, for free. It’s nicer to know that millions more benefit from the same changes/inclusion, which gives the 15 pixels of fame many crave for.

First we had the analysts, but now we have some concrete figures and facts.

Novell earnings come up short

“Overall these are disappointing results,” said Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert, citing the lower-than-expected quarterly sales figure and Novell’s 2007 sales outlook.

Novell used to have the Linux community by its side. I used to be a huge Novell and SUSE advocate myself. With its declining lagacy products, there is not much that can save Novell now. It is hard to imagine that the sentiments throughout the community will encourage acquisition of Novell’s Linux products. More intersting, Novell is killing the very same company that it is presently becoming.

SCO shares closed Monday at $1.11, down 11 cents and 9 percent from last Friday’s trading. The company’s stock has been in freefall since Kimball’s ruling, dropping from $2.40 per share. SCO stock had traded above $4.50 before Wells’ earlier decision in June.

Maybe SCO will find sympathy in today’s news. Novell seems to inherit its place and share the same problem. SCO has malicious intent, while Novell is just being naive.

I suspect it is too late to tell Novell to wake up and retract. It has already fallen too deep into this unhealthy relationship which emptied its soul.

Groklaw explains why Novell’s deal with Microsoft is bad news.

This is Groklaw’s 2,838th article. We now have 10,545 members, who have worked very hard to disprove SCO’s scurrilous claims, and we did. We succeeded, beyond my hopes when we started. But here’s the sad part. As victory is in sight, Novell signs a patent agreement with Microsoft…

This comes amid some criticism which suggests that Groklaw has gone too radical.

Yes, this was inevitable. First it was Linux, which threatened Windows and now it’s OpenDocument, which threatens Microsoft’s biggest cash cow—Microsoft Office. Disinformation is yet again used as a weapon and Novell is the ammunition.

Just published:

This study is a fact-based analysis of the emerging open document standards, Open XML and ODF.

Groklaw has already commented on this ‘study’: “PJ: Jungle drums tell me that Microsoft is spreading this odd report around. Why wouldn’t it, when it includes hilarious sentences like this first one I’ve chosen? ODF, just to explain, is already an ISO standard. Open XML is not. Also notice the big “if” and then how they make use of the deal with Novell. Novell, Novell, what were you thinking? Not about ODF, obviously.”.

To add some context, IDC has served Microsoft with grossly biased reports in the past. Just months ago there was this:

The study, conducted by research firm IDC and commissioned by Microsoft, said Windows Vista will be installed on over 30 million personal computers in Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom within the first year of shipment.

Also covered here: IDC pronounces Linux unimportant to European economy

Need we even go back in time and find similar work by Microsoft-funded pressure groups and astroturfing?

In 2001, the Los Angeles Times accused Microsoft of astroturfing when hundreds of similar letters were sent to newspapers voicing disagreement with the United States Department of Justice and its antitrust suit against Microsoft. The letters, prepared by Americans for Technology Leadership, had in some cases been mailed from deceased citizens or nonexistent addresses.

How about this recent tidbit: “Bill Gates lends cash to buy newspapers – $350 million to MediaNews”?

I would like to quote two recent articles from the most reliable source there is on that matter.

Article #1

MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group

That person is Brian Burke, the Microsoft Regional Director for Public Affairs, and if that surprises you, it surprises me as well, given the degree of acrimonious debate and disinformation witnessed in Massachusetts over the last 15 months involving the Information Technology Division’s transition to ODF…. it is my understanding that it was Burke who led the lobbying effort on Beacon Hill against ODF, and also urged legislators to introduce the amendment intended to take away much of the ITD’s planning power generally, and as regards standards specifically, and hand it to a task force made up of political appointees…. Although I’m told that Burke announced yesterday at the first meeting of the new working group that he will be participating as a private citizen rather than a Microsoft employee, I believe that Burke should recuse himself from participating in any discussions or recommendations relating to document format standards.

Article #2

ComputerWorld Documents Microsoft’s Lobbying in Massachusetts

The article goes on to describe the back-channel negotiations between State CIO Louis Gutierrez and Microsoft’s Alan Yates, and the way that Microsoft played the lobbying card throughout those discussions

Additional resources:

• Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
• Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
• Politics and tech companies: follow the money

Other recent cases of Microsoft lobbying:

• Changing the Report, After the Vote
• US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
• US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
• EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
• Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
• Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking

As Shane recently pointed out, Novell is heading toward South Africa where it will confront resistance to its foolish moves. Tectonic has some more details which complement the full schedule.

As a quick reminder, a principal IT chief vowed to extricate Novell products and it seems evident that South Africans are leaning toward Ubuntu, which works in Canonical’s favour. Mark Shuttleworth is, after all, South African. Novell may have given the excuse to many who were looking for SuSE/SUSE/SLED/SLES/Opensuse alternatives. They are the victim of their own tactlessness.