Countering the latest salvo of Microsoft Corp.’s Get the Facts campaign against open source software, Novell Inc. Wednesday launched a Web site devoted to “unbending the truth” about Linux in the enterprise.

Novell chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Messman is also in the process of sending an e-mail to Novell customers. In that e-mail, Messman debunked a memo that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent to customers last week. In his e-mail, Ballmer wrote that Windows has economic and security advantages over open source software and warned that Linux users are fair game for intellectual property lawsuits….

In response, Novell accused Microsoft of cherry picking from the analyst reports.

“Microsoft is being very selective in what they are pulling from these studies,” said Bruce Lowry, a Novell spokesman. “Microsoft is trying to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in the market place with incomplete arguments….

Novell also took issue with Ballmer’s comments that no vendor today stands behind Linux with full intellectual-property indemnification. “In fact, it is rare for open source software to provide customers with any indemnification at all,” Ballmer wrote. That’s wrong, according to Messman. Novell does offer its customers protection from copyright claims.

“If the world were as Microsoft states, Linux would not be the world’s fastest growing operating system,” Messman wrote.