#5 - The new deal between Microsoft and Novell
Here are a couple reference articles:
Network World
And this one: Linspire
And this
Microsoft, Novell Cozying Up
By P.J. Connolly
Microsoft and Novell announced late Thursday that the two companies had signed three agreements on business cooperation, intellectual property and technical cooperation, aimed at enhancing interoperability between Linux and Windows. The companies will create a joint research facility to focus on document formatting, virtualization and Web services-three areas in which the companies have an interest in creating mutually supportive technology.
The companies will engage in joint marketing activities and exchange upfront payments in return for use of one another’s patents; Novell will also make ongoing royalty payments based on revenues from open-source products. The last item drew criticism from Free Software Foundation attorney Eben Moglen, who told CNET that the payments could conflict with Section 7 of the GPL.
So, the question is: What do you think of this deal between Microsoft and Novell? Is this a good thing or is Microsoft have alterior motives that will hinder more than help?
Eric Smith - Mind Architecture - I think Microsoft’s and Novell’s motives have more to do with solidifying market share than making Linux and Windows work better together. It would be great if the type of hardware and software you can use would be less tied to your operating system but Microsoft and Novell are not who I want making the decisions on how that’s accomplished.
Time will tell, but to me it feels like two industry giants trying to enforce their will and what’s best for their bottom line on the open-source community. Factor in that open-source software developers are responsible for creating much of the software Microsoft and Novell want to regulate and I can’t see this going anywhere…
Stephen Schneider - Mind Architecture - I really don’t know what to think about this. On the short term it doesn’t seem to have much to affect web and database development. I’m not sure what it could mean for the long term. I’m suspicious of what will come out later because of it. Microsoft as a whole aren’t stupid and quite often will spend years building to something. We may not find out the final ramifications of this for a couple years.
December 12th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Personally I think this is a terrible idea. While it sounds great on paper and looks good with highly paid marketing departments spinning tales, can we really forget that Microsoft’s history as a technology predator? Every company that Microsoft has ever partnered with (with the exception of Sun Systems) was either bought out or killed off.
Additionally I am heavily concerned that this alliance will force Novell into the BSA (Business Software Alliance); which they currently are not a member of. Novell, like Sun is currently not a member of the alliance and for good reason. However, when (if) the joins the alliance then we are talking about millions of companies that will all of the sudden be under the tragically financially disastrous legal knife of the BSA.
As far as the benefits to be gained? I think they are far fetched and hopeful. Novell’s SuSe is a threat to Enterprise Redhat, but only marginally. Additionally, the benefits would only be to that of SuSe and Microsoft servers, not FedoraCore, Cento’s, Debian and the other flavors. Again, just hype from MS and Novell marketing on how this will realy help the industry.