Microsoft and Novell collaborate
by Volker Weber
Microsoft and Novell Announce Broad Collaboration on Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support. Companies also announce a patent agreement covering proprietary and open source products.
Comments
This deal is very good for Novell and very bad for Linux as an 'entity'. One of the first questions that Ballmer was asked at the Q&A session was whether this deal would also extend to Redhat. Naturally he weaseled around it for as long as he could until he said this deal is for Novell only. It became pretty clear to me at that point that all Microsoft is doing here is to separate the Linux market into a MSFT friendly market they have some control over and the rest that will be litigated against at full fud'ed force. I am not sure if I should laugh at them or not for thinking folks are not on to that. Think Baystar.
Novell gets enough cash out of the deal to keep rolling for another couple of quarters. It's odd. Then again, 70.000 coupons in Windows 2003 server boxes might translate into some business. Still, it's odd. At last, it is becoming clear to me why there has been such an exec exodus at Novell in the last two months.
Of course I could be wrong and maybe MSFT is 'geeting' Linux. Last I heard, pigs can't fly.
As an veteran I say: There is no deal in this. MS is regularly practicing the Embrace, Extend and Extinguish-tactics since the beginning of the company. IBM, Apple, and many others has experienced this. MS has never collaborated with anybody. They suck people, technology and the customer base from other companies through "collaboration". Or they build short term alliances against rivals. Believe me. There is no reason for this other than marketing and sales. But I have to admit they are "world champion" in this. Remember how they wiped Novell out of the market within 3 or 4 years in the 90'ies.
At least Global Warming is coming to an end now. Hell just froze over.
:-) stw
Whenever I hear anything about Novell, I remember to how close Lotus and Novell came to merging back in 1990. Based on what happened after that, especially the mess that Novell made of its acquisitions of WordPerfect, Quatro Pro, etc. I think Lotus was better off avoiding that one.
