Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 2nd Nov 2006 22:05 UTC, submitted by anonymous
At a press conference in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to announce a new partnership between Microsoft and Novell. The unprecedented deal will have Microsoft offering a degree of sales support for Novell's SUSE Linux while both companies work towards better interoperability between their respective operating systems. As part of the agreement, Microsoft also promises not to wield its patent portfolio against SUSE Linux. More here. You can follow the live webcast announcement, by Steve Ballmer, here. Update: Novell has put up a detailed FAQ about this deal.
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Member since:2005-08-11
It's almost free PR, it shows regulators that they are acting nice in the marketplace, it may sell Windows Hypervisors, hell, they'll get help from Novell to make sure Suse is the best Linux to run on Windows virtualization, which may decrease competitors, especially if both Windows and Suse come in the same box, both with support. Seems like nothing but motives everywhere I look
Member since:
2006-10-22
...read the article, and never mentioned Evil and Empire. This may have benefits, however, statement that they will offer "degree of sales support" for Linux, coming from the company that spent last 10 years bashing it (from cancer to TCO's and SCO's etc.) is a bit of surprise. I'm a bit lost with a motivation here, MS seems to be doing good without the Linux (judging from their latest earnings reports).