You can't try to insinuate that GNU/Linux is a bad product because the source code is available for review. The level of desperation that Microsoft reached was evidenced in statements made by its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, when he described GNU/Linux as a "cancer."

But once a desperate partner was found in Novell, the strategy was finalised - subsidise the company's distribution to the point where businesses would start using it in preference to Red Hat.

After that, once Novell came under Microsoft's control, it would be easy for Redmond to dictate terms.

And while the subsidies were being doled out, a second string would be the addition of proprietary offerings to Novell's product, offerings to which Red Hat would have no access.

Plus the creation of little "roadblocks" in inter-operability with Windows which Novell would be able to surmount - and Red Hat would not.

But things haven't exactly gone to plan. Two years since the two companies signed a deal, Novell has had little to show to prove that its sales have improved.

In the same period, Red Hat has shown impressive growth and gone from strength to strength.

Novell is still considered a pariah by a majority of the free and open source community - apart from some who now feel that any cost is worth paying to see the marketshare of GNU/Linux grow temporarily.

That minority, like George Bush and his Republicans after the Iraq disaster, would like people to "move on." They would like people to see Novell's perfidy as just another business deal and have even come to the point where they postulate that other companies would do likewise if the situation demanded it.

No-one is asking companies to sell GNU/Linux and expect to run at a loss. Everyone is in it for the money and, by George, they are most welcome to make as much moolah as they can. After all they are selling a good product and as the old Chinese proverb goes, "cheap things no good, good things no cheap."

But when it comes to cutting deals with companies whose only intention is to stymie the GNU/Linux market - though their publicly stated aim is the exact opposite - I draw a very definite line. And anyone with an ounce of ethics would do likewise.

As Novell is finding out, and will continue to discover, such deals are counter-productive to the bottom line.