Those who believe that Microsoft only pays lip service to Open Source may be surprised by the mega-deal Microsoft just signed with Novell, which shows that Microsoft has finally decided to come to terms with Linux.
The Novell deal is exceptionally complicated, and spans legal, technical and financial issues. But the upshot is this: There should be better interoperability between Linux and Windows as a result of it.
A lot of money will change hands. Microsoft will be paying $240 million to Novell for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates, for example, for Microsoft customers who want to use Linux in Windows environments. That will cover support and maintenance for Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Separately, Microsoft has also launched an Open Source lab, for testing interoperability between Open Source and Windows.
So the days of a siege mentality at Microsoft when it comes to Linux and Open Source are clearly over. The real winners here are users.
Uhm. Novell is Microsoft's long-time enemy. Linux is one of Microsoft's biggest threats. Can you name one competitor that Microsoft has ever partnered with that benefited from the arrangement? I can name several that haven't. Why do you think this deal will be any different?
This just seems terribly optimistic, considering the past tactics of the company involved.
Right on Kilo, never mind the fact that Novell has been hurting financially for a while now and needs the cash...
Are they hurting financially? It looks like they did $11M in net profit last quarter, versus $2.1M in net profit the year before. Their net profit margin was 32% last year..
Doesn't Billy have any originality. He's just trying to keep his ass safe when he sees the threat of the Open Source movement. He's an asshole.
Bill wasn't behind this IMHO. It's a business deal. Steve Balmer may not be my hero, but he's a realist and eventually, if enough of his biggest customers say they are using Linux and he'd better get used to the idea, he can't hold out with an extreme position forever.
I'm still not entirely clear what is going on though. Interesting times!
Shouldn't we abandon SUSE?
After the recent fiasco generated by Novell getting into an agreement with Microsoft and the whole Open Source Community planning to fight Novell both in and outside the court, will it be sensible to shift over to another Linux distribution? There are other distributions that are as good or better that SUSE so which will be best one to migrate to?