Microsoft Announces Partnership With Novell To Promote Linux

[RThurmont]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1162490 ... ts_news_us

In other news, Satan was hospitalized following severe frostbite as temperatures in his homeland continue to plunge, and 3D Realms announced the imminent release of Duke Nukem Forever.

I should add that the strategic motivation for this on Microsoft's part is the fact that Red Hat, one of their most irksome competitors, is now within striking distance. With Oracle offering enterprise support for RHEL, Microsoft doubtless sees RHEL as being within striking distance, and by allying with Novell at this critical juncture, hopes to annhilate Red Hat completely. If successful, you can bet that this joint venture with Novell will end immediately.

[Shinova]

What? Paradox!!

[bilateralrope]

Considering that site requires registration to view the articles, could you copy and paste it into your post please ?

[Mobius]

> NEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Novell spiked more than 20 percent Thursday
> afternoon after a report that the company is entering a partnership with
> Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, to provide support for
> Novell's distribution of the Linux operating system and improve
> interoperability with Windows.
>
> Citing people familiar with the companies, The Wall Street Journal said that
> under the terms of the deal, Microsoft will offer sales support for Suse
> Linux, an open-source operating system sold by Novell.
>
> The operating system competes with Microsoft's Windows operating system.
>
> The two companies may also codevelop technologies to make it easier for users
> to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers, according
> to the report.
>
> Microsoft agreed not to assert patent rights over the software that will be
> incorporated into Suse Linux, according to the report.
>
> Novell shares shot up $1.11, or 18.9 percent, to $6.98 in afternoon trading on
> the Nasdaq, while Microsoft shares were down 6 cents at $28.75 on the Nasdaq
> Stock Market.
>
> Shares of Red Hat Inc., a competing provider of open source software and
> services, fell 53 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $15.90 on the Nasdaq.
>
> Microsoft scheduled an event at 5 p.m. EST in San Francisco.
>
> © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
> published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

via MSN money (you can check Google news otherwise)

[Tolya]

And, in what appears to be related news:

[Tolya]

Seriously tho, I want to see Microsoft actually create something and don't fortify it with senseless copyright laws, protected by lawyer minions.

Microsoft and GNU? I want to see it before I believe it.

[Spyder]

I've often mused at the thought of Microsoft trying their hand at a Linux distro.

[Erik von Nein]

Not-so-hostile take-over? They talk about Microsoft wanting to make Linux more compatible with Window's systems and what better way to do that than nabbing it's biggest distributer and hijacking it for themselves?

Then, again, maybe I'm a touch cynical ...