Jeff Jaffe’s Blog

Earlier today, Novell and Microsoft announced that we will bring Windows and Linux / Open Source closer together by providing joint solutions whereby Windows can be virtualized and optimized as a guest under SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and SLES can be virtualized and optimized as a guest under Windows. A press release outlining the broad terms can be found here. This partnership, and the improved interoperability between Linux and Windows, is an industry-changing development which will set the stage for innovation, interoperability, ease-of-use, cost savings, and security for decades to come. There are many pieces to this partnership which contribute to this. These are highlighted in the press release. I will want to comment and elaborate on these in the months to come – but there is far too much for one blog posting. Some of the topics I would like to comment on include:

1. Strengthening the foundation for Open Source.
2. New and enhanced Open Source projects
3. The joint solution: Virtualization, the future of computing
4. Technical collaboration

• Management
• Directories
• Virtualization
• Documents

5. Bringing together the Windows world with Open Source technologies
6.The benefits for the Novell’s NetWare customer base
7. Long-term commitment
8. Benefits for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
9. Benefits for Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs)
10. Patents

…to name a few. Actually, as we get into it, I’m sure there will be even more to discuss.

Anyone who has been reading these pages will not be surprised to find virtualization as a centerpiece of this announcement. My last three major posts (on October 3, 16, and 30^th) were all about virtualization and Open Source being transformational.

For today, I want to focus on what I feel is the most far-reaching implication of this deal: strengthening the foundation of Open Source. In the long term, this is most important because this is where innovation occurs and where the future is defined. Futures that we cannot even imagine today. If we set that stage properly, with proprietary and open source software coexisting and interoperating, the computing industry will retain its dynamism.

Three open source sub-communities

We need to be a bit more precise. The Open Source community has grown and matured. It is not a few people working on Linux. Millions of people participate in and benefit from Open Source in many different ways. In constructing this partnership, Microsoft and Novell have toiled carefully to strengthen the foundation of all of these sub-communities; but the key factors that apply to each sub-community are different.

Before I get into the specifics, there is one “meta” point that should not get lost in the details: with this announcement, Microsoft is more fully embracing Open Source and Linux than ever before. As many of us know, Microsoft has begun participating in Open Source in different ways over the last several years. But today, Microsoft is strongly acknowledging the role Open Source plays in the marketplace and in the cycle of innovation. I shouldn’t speak for them in detail, so check out some of the Microsoft blogs (Jason Matusow’s blog, Port 25 blogs, etc ) to see what they say for themselves. What I would say, however, is their strong embrace of Open Source at the “meta” level is significant; in-and-of itself.

The three sub-communities that I will discuss are:

• The innovation community. In my previous postings, I have often characterized the Open Source community as the innovation community. These are the millions of people writing and releasing code as Open Source, contributing to existing projects or starting their own; people who choose to share their innovations with others by publishing code under the General Public License (GPL) and other licenses. In those posts I have shared how Novell contributes to this team, how Novell benefits from this team, and in fact how this team represents the future of innovation in computing. It is significant that we strengthen this foundation.
• Open Source customers. These are enterprises – large and small – that love Linux and other Open Source products. Pretty important to Novell because this is our revenue base. I will describe how we strengthen their foundation in numerous ways.
• Open Source businesses. Recently, many companies have created new businesses around open source. In fact, entire conferences such as the Open Source Business Conference are dedicated to creating Open Source businesses. I will describe how we strengthen the foundation for this important set of companies and business partners.

Strengthening the foundation of the innovation community

Thought leaders within the Open Source community express different points of view about patents. Personally, I respect a wide range of possible viewpoints – but it is not my objective in this post to choose one view or another about patent policies. The fact of the matter is that patents do exist and are recognized by the courts. As an innovator, the last thing I want to worry about is someone’s patents. We would never invent anything if we had to be experts that knew about every patent in the world. Who has the time to read the hundreds of thousands of patents that are released every year?As part of the agreement between Microsoft and Novell, Microsoft has made a commitment not to sue individual, non-commercial developers of Linux and open source for patent infringement. Certainly great news for developers in the openSUSE community as well as others. Progress and innovation proceed unimpeded.

This is the most direct way in which we strengthen the foundation of the innovation community. It is not the only way. As part of our agreement, Microsoft and Novell will initiate several important new open source projects to improve Windows/Linux interoperability and create a shared platform for innovation. I’ll talk about that more in my next post.

Strengthening the foundation for Open Source customers

Customer will have huge advantages by being able to re-architect their data centers around virtualized solutions built both on Linux and Windows. This is a business advantage and I will have a great deal to say about that in future postings. This is their benefit from the “content” of the joint solution. But there is an additional benefit which is not very different from the benefit received by the innovation community, the protection against lawsuits.

As background, Novell has been interested in helping customers in this arena for some time. Novell and its partners such as IBM and Red Hat have worked very hard on this. Over a year ago we announced the creation of the Open Invention Network, which is designed to protect Linux. Today’s announcement takes it a step further.

Which company has been creating a large number of patents in the last several years? Microsoft. Microsoft has agreed not to sue those customers who purchase SLES or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED). As a result, we have we have strengthened the foundation for Open Source customers.

Note that this protection is not limited to the “joint solution”. Any purchaser of SLES and SLED for any usage will not be sued by Microsoft.

Strengthening the foundation for Open Source businesses

An important sub-community in Open Source are the innovators who are taking their innovations to the next step and building open source middleware, solutions, tools, and applications. Novell has long been a supporter of these fledgling businesses through our Market Start program. We count many of these companies as important Novell ISVs.

These businesses are building Open Source products that run both on Linux and proprietary platforms. However, since they are Open Source, Linux figures prominently in their thinking. It is first among equals for these businesses.

They benefit in several ways.

• They benefit directly from the last set of considerations – the fact that they can build on a platform that has reduced risk. If they build on SLES, they know that customers don’t need to be concerned about lawsuits.
• They benefit from the existence of the joint solution and the collaboration of Novell and Microsoft. It will be so much easier for them to apply their innovation to two platforms simultaneously.
• Microsoft and Novell will collaborate on supporting these ISVs.
• Linux will grow and their will be more areas to innovate around the joint solution.

I sure hope these important partners see the benefit of building to SLES.

Summary and what’s next

In several different ways this new partnership enhances the foundation of the Open Source community. Innovators can innovate, customers can run applications, and ISVs can build new solutions.

But the Open Source community will benefit in numerous other ways as well. There will be new Open Source projects. Some of the projects that Novell participates in – such as Open Office and Mono – will get enhanced momentum. But these topics will need to wait for my next post. And as I said at the outset, teasing out the manifold benefits of this partnership will take place over several months.