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Submitted by flyingGuy (not verified) on 20 November 2006 - 9:44pm.

That is a GREAT PR piece. But NOWHERE does it say *anything* about how Novell is going to protect itself from Microsoft. Microsoft is a predator, pure and simple, and NOTHING the CEO of Novell says, or signs will prevent Microsoft from twisting the words of this or any agreement as they have repeatedly done in the past, and do now and WILL do in the future.

I really really want this fairy tail romance to be a reality, but Microsoft is the proverbial cheating spouse that simply cannot be trusted. Ballmer would throw his own mother to the wolves and feed his children to trolls if he thought it extinguish the life of Novell.

In the immortal of the Mother Superior character from Dune, "Many have tried, and died" what makes you think Novell is the "Kwisatz Haderach"?

Submitted by sysadmin1138 (not verified) on 21 November 2006 - 12:12pm.

Legal is one thing, but public perception is another thing. Balmer coming out like that, especially in light of the Novell/Microsoft agreement implies that the agreement was made to shield infringing IP in Linux. Even though Novell has repeatedly denied that was the case, uniformly. Doesn't matter. The Microsoft PR engine is attempting to enhance what many vocal critics in the FOSS community have already spoken about. Many have jumped on Balmer's words with glad cries of, "HAH! Proof Novell was unfaithful!" Any deal with Microsoft is seen as a Faustian pact by certain members of the FOSS community, and Balmer appears to be taking advantage of that perception by trying to further drive a wedge between Novell and the OSS community.

The materials I've read about the agreement have all been pretty clear that this in no way affects competition. Novell and Microsoft are working together to make it easier to virtualize their OS on the other's OS, since both see big money to be made in configurations such as those. That said, Microsoft will be very happy if SLED dies a painful death and SLES is only used in the datacenter for very specific duties. That outcome would be consistant with the deal that has been struck. Novell acknowledged as much shortly after the deal was announced.

Submitted by Driveby Software (not verified) on 23 November 2006 - 4:38am.

When Microsoft was asked to identify any Linux or other open source or code that Microsoft believed violated its patents, as well as to say where it was found and in which distribution it was included, Mr. David Kaefer, the director of business development for intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft, declined to say whether the company believes any of its products infringe any of the patents covering Linux and open-source technologies.

Mr. Kaefer evaded the issue, saying that no company in the open-source or proprietary field went through every product and looked at every patent claim they might or might not assert. "I just don't think that's productive,". He said. FUD everytime....

And, now for some fun. Steve Ballmer as Young Frankenstein (a YouTube).

http://vierranet.blogspot.com/2006/11/young-franke...