Appatic

KSL.com on its Utah section got this report by Dennis Romboy on the trial for the sixth round of Novell vs Microsoft describing the current state for the trail, and the fact that Bill Gates is more than probably will have to appear in it.  Novell will be looking for a settlement that can go from 500 million to 2.5 billion USD. 

Well worth a read and watch. 

Bill Gates may be in Utah for Novell, Microsoft antitrust case

The fun thing about this trail is that it was only executed because the procedure for it was started. But it was so long ago that at this point many in Novell said they didn't even really care or that Novell as a whole cared. As they are now a division of Attachmate who acquired them almost a year ago.

Part of the gist of this round case is based on the assumption of Microsoft delaying Win 95 launch to stick it to Novell. assumption that is both wrong and right.

Wrong, because it was not their main intention. They just wanted for both Windows and Office to be released at the same time. And for the at the time biggest software ad campaign ever made to also be ready.

Right, because it was a happy byproduct for Microsoft of their dual-launch with big campaign plans.

Just that at that point Microsoft had to already know they were going to win against Novell long term anyway.

Don't really see how could Novell win this trail as there should be lots of way to prove that it was not Microsoft main intention to do that. But even if somehow Microsoft lost it. They still get 2 chances to appeal. one to throw away the unfavorable judgment. one to seriously reduce whatever the amount. But again, i think Novell chances of winning this trail are slim unless they got serious smoking gun evidence. And if they had, the trail would had been expedited and happened around 2 years ago. And evidence like that would already been whispered out by Ex-Microsoft employees from that time.

= The actual final verdict for this matter could still be a year away from now if Microsoft loses. Or some months away if Microsoft wins, as it is the most likely scenario.

While there are also other arguments to this case, they are as incredibly circumstantial as the delay argument.

It is still interesting how much time the trails for this multi-battle have taken and how old are the events they are based on. 15 years is a lifetime in tech. I mean, Novell don't even exists independently anymore....

And also interesting that regardless of anything, Novell would still had lost to Microsoft whether or not the launch of Windows 95 and Office 95 had not happened the way it did. Simply due to their own incompetence around 1994-1997.

The only difference would had been that they would have got an extra 2 or 3 years of life on that market. But the idea of they being able to resist the Killing Shots that were Office 2000 and Office XP, even if they had not fallen to Office 97 is quite preposterous.

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via +Chocka Greenfield.

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