Has the Novell/Microsoft Deal Made a Difference? 120
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."'"
Not really (Score:3, Insightful)
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]
CostCo? Last Year around Christmas (Score:1, Insightful)
So last year around Christmas I break down and finally buy an iPod. There's pallets of iPods and they're moving, by the looks of it. There's also a pallet of Zunes. Looks like they've sold about 5 players.
Making a deal with CostCo to sell your stuff doesn't mean people will buy it.
I'm very pleased, except (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
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.
Has it made a difference? SURE! (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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".
Re:The only differences (Score:3, Insightful)
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:Novell Honor Roll diff (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Novell Honor Roll diff (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not really (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 it very well and their pricing is very acceptable.
Without Novell, which solution could I choose to serve our windows workstations? I'd probably have to use active directory, Exchange and Windows server 2003. Which will soon turn into a stability nightmare.
There really is no other software based on Linux that provides the functionality that Novell does.
Re:Has it made a difference? SURE! (Score:3, Insightful)