First of all, to the Linux set (and I’m sure the Cult of Apple), I’m sure this is the most scary pumpkin-carving they’ve ever seen. Boo!
In addition to my delightfully festive photo, today we announced that we’ve formed a partnership with Novell around Linux.
That’s right – Novell & Linux. This ain’t April Fools Day either. ("Wow… did you see that? A pig with wings just flew by!")
Novell Inc. President and CEO Ronald W. Hovsepian (below left) and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (below right) made the announcement earlier today in the interests of increasing customer choice when using the Windows platform while providing flexible & interoperable solutions. Here’s a quick summary of what the agreement means in case you’re looking for the Cliff’s Notes version:
1) MICROSOFT-SUPPORTED INTEGRATION
We’ll be cooperatively managing the development of certain supported integration & interop technologies for virtualization, web services (such as XML-solutions that integrate with Biztalk Server 2006), management (Active Directory related stuff for example) and document format compatibility for SuSE Linux.
2) MICROSOFT-ASSISTED WORLDWIDE SALES & MARKETING
For customers that want Linux-based solutions while needing Microsoft integration support: If there is a technology that Novell & Microsoft have collaborated on in that space, Microsoft will be directly encouraging them to Novell’s SuSE Linux-based solutions for those specific scenarios.
3) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PATENT AGREEMENT
Customers that use SuSE Linux (among some other Novell OSS technology) are indemnified from any potential infrigement upon Microsoft intellectual property patents. Microsoft & Novell have resolved these patent issues between them enabling customers to leverage either company’s technologies while having the confidence in maintaining legal usage compliance.
But don’t be confused – Microsoft firmly believes that Windows platform technologies have a superior value to Linux however for those that insist on Linux-based solutions, we will be encouraging them to work with Novell, even while we compete in other areas.
More on the whole announcement here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-02MSNovellPR.mspx
Kurt Shintaku's Blog 