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Has the Novell/Microsoft Deal Made a Difference?
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Nov 09, 2007 04:44 PM
from the only-to-healdline-writers dept.
from the only-to-healdline-writers dept.
willdavid writes "The deal between Microsoft and Novell was announced a little more than a year ago, and it's hard to judge what impact the deal has really had on the marketplace (if any). The two groups claim to have signed up 30 new customers (including heavyweights like Costco and Southwest Airlines), but it will still be some time before any real changes will be felt. 'Regardless of what impact the deal has triggered in the marketplace over the past year, ultimately it's about meeting market requirements. "The fact is that the vast majority of businesses do not want homogeneous IT infrastructures," Pund-IT analyst King said. "Instead, they want to be able to better and more easily manage their IT assets no matter what hardware or OS platforms they buy. Microsoft and Novell deserve congratulations on their one-year anniversary, but the needs of Linux and Windows customers are as much responsible for the partnership as the companies themselves."'"
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Microsoft To Announce Linux Partnership 534 comments
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Microsoft is entering into an unusual partnership with Novell that gives a boost to Linux, people familiar with the companies tell WSJ.com. From the article: 'Under the pact, which isn't final, Microsoft will offer sales support of Suse Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell. The two companies have also agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers. The two companies are expected to announce details of their plan today at a press conference in San Francisco. In addition, Microsoft won't assert rights over patents over software technology that may be incorporated into Suse Linux, the people said. Businesses that use Linux have long worried that Microsoft would one day file patent infringement suits against sellers of the rival software.'"
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Not really (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not really (Score:4, Interesting)
Heh! Mine now has debian on it. I'd like to say it was a direct result of the Novell-Microsoft deal, which was the major factor, but SuSE's hideous application launcher "start" menu was also a contributor.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But who cares about a GUI on a server? You should disable it anyway.
Personally, our company is using Novell software with a lot of satisfaction (SLES, eDirectory, Groupwise, Zenworks, Intellisync). It really fills the open source gap and is rock solid.
I really don't understand all of the bad press about Novell. Novell is really helping Linux into the business environment and is doing
Re:Marketplace has spoken (Score:4, Funny)
Ballmer? Is that you?
CHAIR!
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It's not perfect, but after the fun I just had trying to get one of our remote offices to work properly with Outlook's shitty IMAP support (they're connection is too u
The one video that sums (Score:5, Informative)
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I suppose an argument could be made that they are really looking to scare off startups, and their investors, and not nece
Re:The one video that sums (Score:4, Insightful)
Because there are more than just MS and Novell involved. And because there are issues of trust at stake.
Look at it this way: suppose you find out I've been talking to your neighborhood thief. Suppose you find out that I've taken money from him to keep lookout while he robs your house. Suppose I then turn around to you and say "it's all right, your house has good locks, he's never going to get. Why shouldn't I take his money and laugh all the way to the bank?". Would you find that reassuring?
Most people would not, I think, and rightly so. I've given no indication that, if the thief did get in, I would do anything to stop him; I've shown a willingness to collaborate with lawbreakers in your town; and I've demonstrated a worrying willingness to betray my associate that suggests I may betray others just as lightly. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
In Novell's case, they've demonstrated a worrying disdain for the community that developed most of the software they sell, and they've given themselves a financial incentive to include MS patents in the code they contribute. And in doing so, they've lost the trust of a large portion of the community, trust which may prove difficult to regain. And while it's true that doesn't seem to particularly worry Novell, the fact that they hold the community in such low regard is worrying in itself.
What it boils down to, I think, is that stratagems that work well in purely commercial environments don't always work so well in the world of free software. That, for my money, is "why not".
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The only differences (Score:5, Insightful)
- Novell is going to incorporate GPL3 [1]
- Vista still sucks
[0] - http://techp.org/p/1 [techp.org]
[1] - http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3755005405.html [linux-watch.com]
Re:The only differences (Score:4, Interesting)
I had always recommended Suse to beginners, not anymore.
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I thought kdesktop was not that well polished nor integrated like the gnome ubuntu desktop. I wondered if kubuntu was different but its the same. Cannonical seems to not care about kde and QA like they do with Gnome. As a result I always pick gnome with the ubuntu desktop.
Maybe this might change when the community has enough of
Well one could help with kde 4.0.
Of Course It Has (Score:3, Interesting)
And the Linux/Open Source crowd have been in a mad rush to 'prove just how open minded they are' to the world, because 'Microsoft isn't ALWAYS evil, you know' and other such blather.
Instead of cutting Novell's air supply off with prejudice making it clear that any other distro that aids Microsoft in their Patent War against Linux/Open Source would be treated the same way, the open source crowd posted a few worthless +5 Insightful diatribes on Slashdot and other forums and then went right back to using Novell's Linux distros.
You should hear the utter contempt the folks at Microsoft in charge of taking on Linux have for you open source folks. Your Weakness sickens them.
Re:Of Course It Has (Score:5, Insightful)
>> charge of taking on Linux have for you open source folks.
>> Your Weakness sickens them.
What actually sickens them is that GOOG is trading at about $660/share.
Parent
Apple and RedHat way up also (Score:2)
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"Dangerous Litigation Minefield"
Funny, isn't someone supposed to get hurt in a minefield, see cause it looks like Suse was "paid" a lot of money to "act" like there were land mines on an otherwise innocuous and beautiful beach front. Seriously, nothing screams weakness more than Microsoft warning everyone how dangerous it is to use FLOSS, while the majority of community shrugs it off. Weakness indeed, ballmer and these patent threats, have been little more than a joke, with some segments of the community actually taunting the beast "go
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Yes (Score:3, Interesting)
If you knew.........nevermind.
I'm very pleased, except (Score:2, Insightful)
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BLah BLah Blah more crapspeak (Score:5, Insightful)
I dont think any of that actually means anything. No really, it sounds like a bunch of Manager type talk but nothing concrete. All ideas and no real tangibles.
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You're quite right I think. I've quoted the two separately for
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The fact is that the vast majority of businesses do not want homogeneous IT infrastructures," Pund-IT analyst King said. "Instead, they want to be able to better and more easily manage their IT assets no matter what hardware or OS platforms they buy.
See I don't think they really care about hetrogeneous IT infrastructures. They might view it as a nice to have in terms of not being completly beholden to one vendor, not have their entire infrustructure vulnerable to the same threats, and so fourth; but they don't care. If they did care they would be investing hetrogeneous infrastructures despite additional management overhead.
The reality is most small shops are either all Linux/BSD/appliance(with a few OEM licensed winders boxen on ppls desks who need
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually samba is specifically named as not being covered by the agreement. MS will sue you if you use samba even if you are using suse.
In fact if you are using suse you are at a greater risk of a lawsuit because you have established a relationship with MS at that point.
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Business as usual, to a large extent...although he actually isn't saying anything negative about Linux. He's saying that he thinks businesses want diversity of operating systems, based on what they're doing...and Linux can benefit from that.
Has it made a difference? SURE! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Novell Honor Roll diff (Score:5, Informative)
Robert Love - beagle, kernel, now at Google
Joe Shaw - beagle, not at ITA Software
Crispin Cowan and the entire AppArmor team (fired en-masse)
plus others I can't remember off the top of my head
Who of note is still drawing a Novell check?
Miguel de Icaza, mono
Nat Friedman, "chief technology and strategy officer for open source" (but mighty quiet lately)
Greg Kroah-Hartman, kernel
Re:Novell Honor Roll diff (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Novell Honor Roll diff (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Novell Honor Roll diff (Score:4, Insightful)
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No, it didn't (Score:2)
Measure? (Score:4, Insightful)
How many companies have been terrified to look at Linux now that Microsoft is screaming that Linux users are violating patents? Didn't SCO use the same tactics, and everyone berated them for it? SCO's stolen code they wouldn't point out is the same as the unlisted patents that Microsoft feels are violated.
Novell paid to license patents, and in doing so, they cast a shadow of guilt on all Linux distros. Can you quantify and put on a pie chart a FUD factor? Can you count how many users move from one distro to the other, when we don't have counts in the first place?
And what of the other distros that ended up signing deals as well?
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The bottom line was that the entire patent deal was supposed to only cover new products that Novell developed with the intent of helping linux and windows technologies to work together better and more efficiently. Novell has consistently said that the deal was for new tech and to get windows and linux working as well as repeatedly denied any knowled
Re:Measure? (Score:4, Interesting)
It simply says that Novell paid to license patents, and the ambiguity is notable. It doesn't have to clearly say that Linux violates Microsoft patents, Microsoft wins with even just a shadow of doubt here. If they can make corporations wary, then it will be enough to keep them from using Linux.
I work in a moderately sized IT department for a local company these days, and most of the IT staff here say things like "it is against the law to use any GPL programs for commercial use", etc. Even the suggestion or rumor is enough to scare people away permanently often enough.
Parent
No difference whatsoever. (Score:2)
Yes it has.... (Score:5, Interesting)
one difference that I know of (Score:2)
The Impact (Score:2)
Microsoft and Novell extend alliance (Score:2, Insightful)
Microsoft and Novell extend alliance [vnunet.com]
I know that 99% of slashdotters desperately want the MS/Novell deal to flop, but you're going to have to accept the fact that it's here to stay. And it's causing companies to switch to Novell at Red Hat's expense. Know that.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's difficult for many companies to admit they've made a horrible mistake. Look at a one year stock price chart of RHAT v NOVL http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1y&s=RHT&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=novl [yahoo.com]
Sure SuSE can claim some client wins. So can Red Hat, as their current agreements with Amazon show. That sort of thing
It has made Microsoft the largest Linux OEM (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft has realized that there are some things that Linux does better than Windows, especially in the server area, and wanted to guarantee a piece of the action. So far they seem to have succeeded. Novell gets the support business, Microsoft gets to keep a customer..
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I mean, it doesn't involve saying "FUCK GOOGLE!" or involve throwing chairs!
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