12.18.07
Novell and Microsoft Kiss in Public With New Domain
Rememeber the recent sighting of Turbolinux and Microsoft kissing in public, with insinuations that free open source software is somehow incompatible with the enterprise? The press release had Microsoft fingerprints all over it. Now, it’s Novell turn again.
This month’s Novell Linux Newsletter included a link to the Suse Team Blog which lists 40+ customers who “have decided to take advantage of the many benefits that the (MS/Novell) agreement brings to the table.” And who knew that there was a whole site dedicated to the lovefest? (Hint: Not me.)
Unfortunately, the site, moreinterop.com appears to be down at the moment…probably running IIS…
Dave is right with his guess. The site runs a purely on a Microsoft stack, which pretty much says who is most excited about this software patent deal, who is in charge in this relationship (the dominant spouse), and who gains the most.
Watch the logos at the top of the Web site. Our little games with trademarks no longer seem so wild and far fetched. █
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.