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What the hell? I think I've somehow jumped realities and have found myself in some Twilight Zone episode....

Novell / Microsoft announcement

We are brave people. We survived Apple's switch to Intel. We'll survive this too!

And here, a more recent article it seems.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 913376.htm

Judland wrote:What the hell? I think I've somehow jumped realities and have found myself in some Twilight Zone episode....

Novell / Microsoft announcement

no shat!! - does this mean I get my linux desktop at work

WTF - I have to sleep on this one - is the the embrace part?

here is some more info on it

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9843352777.html

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS2912974320.html

I don't know what to make of it - I have to sleep on it and digest it.

I don't trust Microsoft or have been shown a reason why I should.

Are the potential advancements in operability between the two OSs going to be released to the rest of the Linux / open source community so we still have a choice as to which OS and distros we (as computer users) get to run? Or is this a SUSE / MIcrosoft only world now?

I'm not going to claim this a Linux victory yet.

I'm with Vaughan-Nichols on this one.

This is a bit of surprise but hey, anything is possible. Remember M$ bailing out Apple when it was running out of money.
What does each side get out of this?
Novell:
- better cooperation for integrating such things as active directory & samba
- a non aggression pact regarding IP
- recognition that Linux is for real and part of the enterprise landscape
- recognition that Novell is an enterprise Linux player

M$:
- better access to virtualization technology (M$ has fallen way behind in this regard)
- access to Novell's recent innovations in user management and policy
- mend some fences in the Linux community

Why did this happen? Maybe M$ realizes that the whole FUD campaign against Linux has failed. Sco is pretty much dead in the water. Novell needs to compete with Oracle & RedHat in the enterprise market. Perhaps this is the first phase of things to come where M$ has to deal with the Linux world and accepts that fact. Hell maybe M$ plans on basing their next OS on Linux in some way. They went through hell trying to get Vista out the door. Maybe they realize there's a better development model than what they're use to.

Possible outcomes:
- M$ starts selling versions of Office for Linux
- M$ makes their codecs available to Linux
- this is a ploy by M$ to lull and fracture the Linux community (remember Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union had a non aggression pact). They plan on suing RedHat, Canonical, etc..

This is all conjecture at this point. We definitely live in some interesting times.

There's some really good commentary from Novell/Suse people:
http://planetsuse.org/

Article from today's WSJ:
http://tinyurl.com/y7uksq

Cnet article:
http://tinyurl.com/yxl6yj

Webcast of the announcment:
http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/webcast.html

If anyone wants to chat about this please jump on the IRC.

I'm watching the webcast Pat links to above.... If nothing else, I'm giddy to see Ballmer eating his own pile of dog *hit

"We have been working on a set of thinking for a number of years, and yet we've been continuously shaped by the folks who are here and the many others who are around the world.... Linux plays an important role in the IT infrastructure of many of our customers and will continue to play an important role."

MMmmm.... isn't it tasty to have to eat your own vomit there, Ballmer?

Basically, he's saying Microsoft has tried to scare us into using their products and ONLY their products, but we found out that they were full of *hit, none-the-less. So, now Steve wants to give us a nice kiss on our ass and try another approach to *ucking us all over.

That's a pretty far cry from calling Linux a cancer and used only by Communists.

Ballmer is the biggest ass-hole I've ever encountered.

Judland wrote:Ballmer is the biggest ass-hole I've ever encountered.

Yup, there are others out there: Ellison, Jobs, Gates, etc..

I had to stop watching the webcast. I'm getting too upset.

He says that for several years IT have been struggling to get Microsoft and Linux together. And who's fault is that, you Fat Bastard?!!!

I can't watch any more right now.

LWN is posting some responses from various people in the Linux community:

http://lwn.net/Articles/207559/

I couldn't help myself. I've resumed to watch the webcast.

In my opinion, it sounds like Novell will not be sharing it's development work with Microsoft with the rest of the F/OSS world. They talk about offering "their customers" (Novell, that is) a choice between Linux and Microsoft. I would have felt better about it if they said "the F/OSS community".

There was also a comment about Microsoft not enforcing patent restrictions on "independent", non commercial open source developers. This obviously excludes Red Hat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, and other distros. So, this "patent covenant", as they describe it, is a Novell-only kind of thing.

The only really good thing I heard was that OpenOffice.org will have better document translators written for it.

I could be reading it wrong, but it sounds to me like Novell is turning its back on the F/OSS world who are not using SuSE.

Red Hat's response and other commentators who are not happy:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000 ... 538,00.htm

Does this deal violate the GPL?