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."'"
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.
Yes (Score:3, Interesting)
If you knew.........nevermind.
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.
Re:The only differences (Score:4, Interesting)
I had always recommended Suse to beginners, not anymore.
Re:The only differences (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes it has.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:The only differences (Score:1, Interesting)
Companies that actually pay for support contracts are the ones that Novell cares about, not your home set-up.
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..
Re:Microsoft and Novell extend alliance (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 is annecdotal noise. Novell's earning per share haven't changed a cent from four quarters ago, as stated in SEC filings. They're exactly what they were a year ago, when the agreement was made. Red Hat's are up 17%. In your words, "Know that."
BTW, in the reference you cite, the *only* specific technology that was mentioned by name was Microsoft's User Interface Automation specification. Which the article went on to say, "The Redmond giant added that it will not assert any patents necessary to implement the specification against anyone, regardless of platform, in the open source and proprietary software communities." So amongst the corporate PR platitudes, the only specific item mentioned provides no business advantage to SuSE.
Yes, this agreement probably will continue. Until SuSE's board come to their senses. It hasn't been good for Linux or SuSE's investors. The only winner has been Microsoft. IOW, it's been the same story as the vast majority of all partnerships with Microsft.