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:
2006-01-02
I'd guess that Novell will add support for OpenXML to OpenOffice.org, and in return get to play web service games with Microsoft, and share some Xen love with them.
Thrown in is Microsoft's non-assertion pledge against SuSE customers. Given that Novell is part of OIN, not a particularly large price to pay for them: asserting patents against any OIN member could turn really ugly, so Microsoft may as well pick and promote one of them as a business partner in return for some street credibility.