Am I the only one who finds Novell's continued backtracking and silliness over its patent scheme with Microsoft reprehensible? Ron Hovsepian went on the defensive (again - you'd think that Novell would learn that its opprobrium from the patent deal is not something that is easily explained away) with eWeek, suggesting:Novell does not acknowledge any patent infringements with open source "in any way, shape or for Am I the only one who finds Novell’s continued backtracking and silliness over its patent scheme with Microsoft reprehensible? Ron Hovsepian went on the defensive (again – you’d think that Novell would learn that its opprobrium from the patent deal is not something that is easily explained away) with eWeek, suggesting:Novell does not acknowledge any patent infringements with open source “in any way, shape or form. We would never do that, as we believe there aren’t any,” he said.Great! But earlier…He argues that the deal has been good for Linux adoption as well as for Novell, pointing to several large deals done recently that would not have happened had the Microsoft agreement not been in place.How would Ron know? What Linux adoption has Novell been responsible for? Very little, if you look at its financials. As for “several large deals done recently,” it’s interesting that he would call a deal large that, in several cases, involved Novell giving away the software. For free. To get a reference. (Don’t believe me? Ask the customers. I did.) Novell’s Microsoft sell-out isn’t driving Linux adoption, even for Novell – not much, anyway. After all, how is it good for customers to tell them out of one side of your mouth that there are no IP problems, and then out of the other side to tell them, “Pssst! Buddy, buy some protection. You never know….” Is that supposed to give them confidence to buy?The best thing that Novell could do for Linux is to sell it, and to stop participating in FUD around Linux. If customers have IP concerns, they don’t seem to be stopping Red Hat. Even Oracle today announced that it is tearing it up (though its claims are a bit suspect, given that a few of its customers also happen to be hardware companies that depend on it for sustenance). No one is slowing Ubuntu, either.So, is it just Novell with an IP problem? Or is Novell casting about for some excuse for why it continues to remain a distant second in the Linux race? Hint: The answer is not to try to disqualify the race itself, Novell, but rather to start to run faster. On the same course. With a better offering. Until you do that, you deserve to lose, and need to stop trying to paper over the ugly walls of your shameless patent pact. Open Source