04.24.08
What If Red Hat Bought SuSE Instead of a Microsoft Partner?
Novell happily considers itself and even describes itself as a Microsoft partner, which possibly makes it part of that self-serving channel or the Microsoft ecosystem. Just watch the recent story from China for enlightening examples [1, 2, 3, 4].
It’s interesting to have it confirmed that SuSE could have had a better destiny. It was purchased with IBM’s encouragement but by the wrong company. It could have been bought by Red Hat.
First in line to acquire SUSE back in the day was…Red Hat. Matthew Szulik decided to pass on the opportunity and, well, the rest is history. Ironic, isn’t it? With whom would Microsoft have done its patent deal had Novell not been around? Would Ubuntu have started sooner to fill the competitive Linux void?
We’ll never know….
It’s all retrospective. █
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.