05.23.07
Microsoft is Novell’s #1 Channel Partner
Recent statements by Novell’s Justin Steinman regarding the Microsoft-Novell deal continue to indicate that Microsoft is indeed distributing SUSE, and quite successfully I may add.
Steinman characterized the deal as good for the open source movement, and referred to it as the deal that "put Linux in Walmart and Nationwide Bank" (Umm, Walmart already had Linux Justin - don’t know about Nationwide off the top of my head), and we all know sometimes Justin has a gift for making bombastic statements, fumbling his words or spinning the words of others, so it is alway precarious to base our speculation on Justin’s statements.
Anyhow, my question is this: How can Microsoft be Novell’s #1 channel partner, as Justin asserts, but not a distributor bound by the GPLv2?
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 24, 2007 at 3:19 am
The link to the joint statement appears to be here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070524/tc_infoworld/88804;_ylt=ArgeHJ2EfyFte1wawVRe4qcjtBAF
Or here:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/23/novell_microsoft_defend_patent_deal_1.html
The link in in the item points at the EFF scoop.