12.06.07
Quick Mention: Centeris and Novell
We mentioned Centeris earlier , the context being the GPLv3, which was needed due to compatibility issues with Samba. One curious thing about Centeris shows up in this newer IDG article.
Open, which will be licensed under GPL and LGPL, will ship with the next versions of Red Hat and Ubuntu, according to company officials. A deal with Novell is in the works.
Will this deal resemble the Dell deal? Will this involve software patents and royalties by any chance? Sometimes, companies enter the patent liability mess by association, by liaising with a Microsoft partner rather than Microsoft directly. We saw that with Scalix. There’s also the role of GPL proxies. It’s a role that Novell in particular has been happy to fill. █
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.