Novell and Microsoft to be partners?

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:09 pm

I agree with Troels.

Fanboi and zealot are not the same thing at all.

J/K Troels

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:19 pm

Snarkout wrote:I agree with Troels.

Thank you very much.

Snarkout wrote:Fanboi and zealot are not the same thing at all.

J/K Troels

I would prefer just saying fan, because "fanboy" has a really negative meaning in my head.

Actually, I think that I am less a SUSE fan than Linc is a Slackware fan

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:01 am

Look at this horse s*it now.... eWeek Link

I think Novell has really f*cked things up, this time. This is FUD on the grand-scale.

no1important · Post by **no1important** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:46 pm

Counsel Predicts Red Hat to be Last Linux Vendor Standing

A TechTarget interview with Red Hat general counsel Mark Webbink, published late last week, remains the talk of the Web on Monday. In it, in response to the alliance forged by Linux competitor Novell with enterprise competitor Microsoft, Webbink made the almost un-lawyerlike prediction that, now that Novell has taken what he characterized as a divergent path, "there won't be any other Linux players" by the end of next year.

Webbink punctuated this prediction with the phrase, "We will have succeeded once again."

I do not believe that at all.

Read the rest here

greggh · Post by **greggh** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:01 pm

Forbes has an interesting article on this...

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/1 ... rsstarget=

Think about this: Novell now has signed as its biggest reseller a company that wants nothing more than to kill its product.

Microsoft has done this many times before, so often that Redmond has a name for the technique: embrace, extend and exterminate. And yet people keep doing these deals. Usually, it's weak, struggling, desperate companies with declining market share and little hope of turning things around. In other words, just like Novell.

On Thursday night, I asked Jeff Jaffe, Novell's chief technology officer, if he could think of a company that had partnered with Microsoft and done really well as a result. Which Microsoft alliance, I asked him, would he cite as the model that he'd like to emulate?

His response: "I think this partnership is breaking new ground."

Um, right. Unfortunately, the new ground they're breaking is probably Novell's gravesite.

jsusanka · Post by **jsusanka** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 12:03 am

Judland wrote:Look at this horse s*it now.... eWeek Link

I think Novell has really f*cked things up, this time. This is FUD on the grand-scale.

yup - I totally agree with you. got suse off all my machines. I do not want to a sponser of threats to the community. and I don't want to deal with any IP from microsoft.

I am so sick of the back room deals that are nothing but fud and lining rich boys pockets.

note to ballmer - fsck off - come sue me you fxxkhead - I watched the video and fast forwarded through your parts because you are a fat ugly bxstxrd.
I don't need your fricken crap os - and I am recommending linux instead of your crap vista to companies I deal with and it won't be suse linux either. so go stuff that in you IP portfolio you fat smug bxstxrd.

ahh - that felt great - this deal was nothing but fud so companies will still buy vista because it will be to much legal hassle to migrate to linux. god I wish some company would just take microsoft to court and kick some ass. I am so sick of their patent fud. they don't have a leg to stand on. they will probably start sueing some other companies.

thanks a lot novell. I thought you were on our side.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:25 am

It seems to me that Novell code will have to be quarantined and all their contributions to the community will have to be rejected. If Microsoft agrees not to sue Novell but is free to sue anyone else in the Linux world, Novell has to be cut off to minimize damage. It will be a huge hassle on Novell's part to keep their proprietary stuff separate. Better to just reject anything they do.

It's comforting, though, that Microsoft will have just as much trouble avoiding GPL code in their proprietary software. It will bite them sooner or later. Novell is the only company that won't sue them for patent violations. The rest are free to send their lawyers after Microsoft.

It makes sense to cooperate with Microsoft to "give the consumer what they want," but it's not good for the consumer in the long run. Someone would have done it sooner or later, but it's sad that it was Novell.

greggh · Post by **greggh** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:15 pm

Some financial details of the deal...

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+paying+No ... g=nefd.top

In one of the more complex examples of "cooptition" in the computer industry, Microsoft will pay Novell a net amount of $308 million to market and distribute its competitor's product.

The five-year Microsoft-Novell partnership, unveiled last week, involves a mix of patent, technology and business issues. Novell disclosed details of the partnership in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.

Microsoft will pay Novell $240 million for 350,000 coupons--70,000 per year--entitling customers to support and maintenance for Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Chief Executive Ron Hovsepian said Tuesday. In addition, Microsoft will spend $94 million over the five-year deal on its own sales and marketing work for Suse products.

Microsoft hopes the partnership will help the fortunes of its management software for virtualization, technology that lets different operating systems run simultaneously on the same server, said general counsel Brad Smith. "The principal purpose of this is to enable us to take our virtualization solution to market," he said.

The deal also involves patent-related payments. Microsoft will pay Novell a net amount of $108 million in an agreement under which both companies release each other from patent claims from past actions, Hovsepian.

However, that will be offset by Novell payments of at least $40 million over the course of the deal to ensure Microsoft won't sue Suse customers for patent infringement. The Novell payments are based on how much revenue Novell garners from sales of its Linux and Open Enterprise Server products.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:18 am

Microsoft hopes the partnership will help the fortunes of its management software for virtualization, technology that lets different operating systems run simultaneously on the same server, said general counsel Brad Smith. "The principal purpose of this is to enable us to take our virtualization solution to market," he said.

This is something I don't understand. From what I've read, Microsoft is putting their virtualization efforts into Xen, and want to be able to run Windows on top of Linux and Linux on top of Windows.

Xen exists and is free. The only reason you can't run Windows on top of Xen is Windows need to be modified to make it work (unless your CPU has hardware virtualization support). Since only Microsoft can easily modify Windows, why do they need Novell? They can use Xen all they want just by hacking Windows to cooperate. They can even call it "Microsoft Xen" and sell it for a lot of money as long as they license it properly.

Since Linux is free, it wouldn't be hard for Linux to be modified to run in a Xen-like way on top of a Microsoft virtualization system. Again, why does Microsoft need Novell?