Novell: Unbending the truth [LWN.net]

Novell has put up a series of pages entitled Unbending the Truth: Things Microsoft Hopes You Won't Notice; it is a response to Steve Ballmer's anti-Linux letter. "If the world were as Microsoft states, Linux would not be the world's fastest growing operating system, ISVs would not be writing to it in ever increasing numbers, partners would not be looking to sell it, and Microsoft would not have put a revenue caution related to Linux in their latest SEC filing. These, however, are the real facts."

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Novell: Unbending the truth

Posted Nov 3, 2004 14:32 UTC (Wed) by minichaz (subscriber, #630) [Link]

I can't help thinking that the pages look rather amaturish. There's some clever CSS/JavaScript stuff but the content is badly presented and rather weak.

I'm not even sure GNU/Linux companies and community need to be playing Microsoft at their own game. Everyone knows MS claims about Windows V's Linux are overblown hogwash so why do we have to present dubious statistics of our own in response? Ignore them instead.

So good on you Novell for trying but you could do better. ;)

Novell: Unbending the truth

Posted Nov 3, 2004 19:32 UTC (Wed) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

" So good on you Novell for trying but you could do better. ;) "

That is true... it would take a concerted effort... because it is the Decision Makers, not System or Network Administraters, that MS is trying to take for a ride with their fraudulent *overblown hogwash*...

... meaning the commercials will *tend* almost never to contradict the Decision Makers swollen brains with *uncontested overblown hogwash*... and administraters will get a miserable life!!

Worst it will *trend* to destroy the rest of the software market, except for MS of course.

So just *Ignore them instead* is EXACTLY what MS want. It should not be done in any circunstance.

Novell: Unbending the truth

Posted Nov 3, 2004 20:14 UTC (Wed) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

" because it is the Decision Makers, not System or Network Administraters, that MS is trying to take for a ride with their fraudulent *overblown hogwash* "

And that not on corporate worlds where there are proper CIO & CTO, but on the enourmous mass of SOHO, SME where the competence is much lower...

... and Open Source should not forget those markets , because were those markets that have made MS what it is today.

Website observation

Posted Nov 3, 2004 15:32 UTC (Wed) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link]

It looks like they're really trying, and then they go tossing in gratuitous Javascript use.

<rant>

Too damn' many websites go to JS when the right way is the most obvious and simplest: put in a hyperlink! Many folks (like me, for a random example) browse with Java & JS off, to minimize unpleasant surprises. The result is that I must either check the source to reverse-engineer the JS, or decide whether the site is worth turning it on for, with the accompanying risk that I'll forget to turn it off before visiting a malicious URL.

</rant>

One of these days I'll get around to hacking a ``JS for this site only'' option into Firefox. (Maybe a ``JS for this tab only'' would be good, too.)

Website observation

Posted Nov 4, 2004 22:30 UTC (Thu) by dbreakey (guest, #1381) [Link]

Where are they using JavaScript?

After checking the source, I see some trivial JS for tweaking the layout, but the fancy bit where they change the color of the paragraphs as you hover over them is pure CSS; no JavaScript involved. It's quite a handy little trick, really. Check meyerweb.com, specifically the css/edge link, for full details on how to do it. This is the same guy that got me really interested in the true potential of CSS; it's quite eye-opening, really.

Note, though, that most of the tricks demonstrated here only work properly in Mozilla, or a Mozilla-derived browser; IE, especially, requires nasty hacks to the CSS descriptor files to work acceptably.

Incidentally, viewing the Novell article in a browser with JS disabled results in the side menu going bye bye; that seems to be about the gist of it. Really, though, even that could be trivially handled using CSS, so somebody's just lazy. Then again, they're probably just using a CMS that doesn't give them much choice.

Website observation

Posted Nov 11, 2004 21:35 UTC (Thu) by shane (subscriber, #3335) [Link]

One of these days I'll get around to hacking a ``JS for this site only'' option into Firefox.

I used to be a Firefox fanboy, but the latest Konqueror kicks ass. It supports the feature you mention.