02.01.08
Novell is Microsoft’s Supercomputers Trojan Horse
As I stressed in a recent article of mine (which made Slashdot), Linux is a big winner in the area of supercomputing. It dominates over 90% of HPC. However, under everybody’s nose, just look what Microsoft is quietly cooking:
A new resource dropped in January 2008 offers a way to integrate Windows Compute Cluster Server into a Linux Environment through Platform LSF.
“The integration of WCCS into the Linux SUSE environment enables users to submit jobs to the Platform LSF scheduler for execution on WCCS. When a job is submitted to the Platform LSF scheduler’s WCCS queue on Linux, it is transferred to the Platform LSF installation on Windows Compute Cluster Server. The Platform LSF installation running on WCCS then authenticates the user and runs the job using that user’s credentials,” Microsoft stated.
The next time someone asks you how Novell harms Linux, tell his or her about Novell’s special invitation to Microsoft. Novell just wants to sell SUSE. It cares very little about anything else and it tries to keep its new partner happy so that more coupons can be sold. SUSE, just like Moonlight, has become a pet project of Microsoft. Microsoft uses it to its own advantage, as usual. █
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.