If by blindsided you mean, they acted in a predatory and illegal way for 20 years, had it proven in a federal anti-trust case then refused to settle out of court over a bogus technicality, sure they were blindsided. Do something wrong and lie about it forever sounds more like Microsoft standard operating procedure than a surprise. Indeed, this kind of thing was expected when the federal case was won.
I like the groklaw article. The summary of wrong doing is great: "You'll find the details of Microsoft's successful effort to suppress the OpenDoc open source standard and replace it with Microsoft's closed source OLE. Watch in awe as Novell tells the story of Microsoft destroying the future of the cross-platform AppWare application development tools. Be astounded by the adroit moves as Microsoft crushes the most commercially successful program of the time, as Novell describes it, deflating WordPerfect's market share from 47 percent to 10 percent worldwide in the space of two years, without bothering to develop an equivalent replacement. Here we're going to be treated to a battle of the titans over a serious claim to more than $3 billion in damages. This is nothing like SCO's near-ludicrous claim for billions of IBM's dollars. And Novell just got Microsoft to bankroll the lawsuit to the tune of the $536 million Netware settlement. No budget-minded plaintiff in this lawsuit." The comparison to the above to toxic waste in the ground water that makes your liver fall out is also very funny. I'm glad someone is willing to research and publish that kind of material. On Wednesday 17 November 2004 08:22 pm, Terry Stockdale wrote: > Very interesting reading at Groklaw. Looks like MS may have been > blindsided. They had elected not to settle the antitrust claims of Novell > as part of its recent settlement of Novell's other claims. > http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20041114074810372
