Novell and Microsoft Announcement

Customer Views

"It's great to see industry leaders combining forces to solve key infrastructure compatibility issues which are very important to use as enterprise customers. At Goldman Sachs, I oversee a very large, complex technology organization where our environment spans UNIX, Linux and Windows, and we need to continue to deliver value and effectively run our business across that complex set of environments and technologies. Until now the burden of ensuring all that operates seamlessly and interoperates cleanly and well for us was really borne by us at the enterprise customer side and it was a significant effort that we had to put into that. The commitment on the part of the part of these two technology companies to collaborate and provide enhanced interoperability for our strategic platforms will allow us not only to save money, but will also allow us to focus and concentrate on delivering business value to our businesses and not spend our time in the technology interoperability and integration business where we'd prefer not to be. We applaud this very important step forward on the part of Microsoft and Novell."
— Randy Cowen, CTO, Goldman Sachs

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Customer Comments*

Feedback: I was unsure with the recent partnership, but the more and more I think about it I love it. The Interop Vendor Alliance was announce, this is great assurance. I would really like to see more moves like this, more feedback from all type of computer related companies to get involved in this movement, Novell needs to capitalize, and say that this is a revolution that will take Linux to the next generation of compatibility and reliability.
Keep up the great work, the community is still confused with the deal as a whole, so please try and give some more information on the plan and what Novell expects form the partnership, in terms of sales and assurance. Thankyou.

I was unsure with the recent partnership, but the more and more I think about it I love it. The Interop Vendor Alliance was announce, this is great assurance. I would really like to see more moves like this, more feedback from all type of computer related companies to get involved in this movement, Novell needs to capitalize, and say that this is a revolution that will take Linux to the next generation of compatibility and reliability.
Keep up the great work, the community is still confused with the deal as a whole, so please try and give some more information on the plan and what Novell expects form the partnership, in terms of sales and assurance. Thankyou.

I am encouraged. I have long been a supporter of Novell and all it's products. We are slowly moving to SUSE as we replace hardware. In my 28 years in the field, Novell has always been the superior company, just never told the rest of the world. I hope this keeps them afloat.

It is great decision for those not sure about the switch to linux in an enterprise, but for those already entrenched in Linux they may feel as if you're selling out. Mostly I'm excited about the virtualization.

A step in the right direction. I was mostly surprised that Microsoft would enter into such an agreement after all the press slamming Linux and open source.

It will prevent me from buying anything from novell. It cost me a lot of effort to switch to open source, to free myself from Microsoft licenses to replace all non-free formats and programs can't allow to have it coming back using back door.

Novell leadership needs to step up and explain this deal in a way that customers and the OSS community would understand it. We don't need to hear something that would excite investors. We need to hear about what actually matters.

I am questioning whether I can trust Novel anymore. It isn't that I hate proprietary software, but I just don't trust Microsoft. I also don't see any benefit to anyone except Microsoft from the agreement. Microsoft is making virtualization of Vista costly, so I really don't see anything good that can come of this.

Not sure why it is so important that Microsoft is all of the sudden going to make their software more compatible with SuSe Linux, when Novell has been making all of their OS's work with Windows servers and desktops for years. Good to see Microsoft is getting a little worried though

Personally already a Novell/SUSE customer and of course a Microsoft one as well. With the hopes the support for Xen and virtuallization on either platform is a great/ very great thing. Open document standards is also another very good aspect.

Glad to see you've decided to play nice with each other. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst.

Overall I think this is a fabulous move for Novell, Microsoft, Linux, and IT customers.

The part I would say I am excited about is the document format compatibility. I have nothing against MS Office, but prefer to not spend hundreds of dollars per user for an Office Suite. I would much rather use Open Office, and if Open Office and MS Office can be more compatible - GREAT! To be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing a Linux version of MS Office. Why not? Sure lot's of people wouldn't use it, but a lot more would. For us, MS Office is really the main thing keeping us from running a Linux desktop on most machines.

As for MS I do have some doubts in their "good intentions" but as long as MS doesn't threaten further linux development and existing distibutions, and Novell is in full compliance with GPL and continues to provide it's support to openSuSE community I can live with it.

it is a good step for Novell, securing business of their customers in environments where good interoperability is needed

I don't know yet whether Novell has made a great mistake or not. I hope this ends up well and we get for example better drivers for devices in Linux in the future.

I still have to get used to the idea where. But i think the best way to put it is "it's a smal step for man. One giant leap for open standards" Who would've figured this ?

This was so out-of-the-blue that I still don't understand "why." I suppose I'm just to cynical to believe microsoft is actually trying to help their customers...

I think this is a positive thing that is good for Novell and Novell customers.

As long as both ends of the agreement hold up their deal and neither tries to hurt the other through Intellectual Property means (i.e., Microsoft tries to sue non-SUSE Linux users to gain an unfair advantage, or otherwise), I'm all for the increased interoperability this announcement holds.

I just hope this doesn't come back to nip Novell in the butt.

We run on 600 platforms now and our customers care only about the price/performance not the supplier trademark.

whoa.... I thought it was april fool's joke at first.

The biggest benefit is the whole IN/Patent issue. Hopefully this will bring SCO to a quick and bitter end sooner. And the folks at EMC/Vmware should be shaking in their boots...

I think it's good overall. I think Microsoft may actually be playing nice here, and allowing for a healthy marketplace. If they wanted to destroy Novell they could, if they wanted to buy them they could, but instead they cooperated. Maybe they still want to do the above things, but they haven't for now.

It's the best deal Novell ever made.

Hope Microsoft don't use it to crush SUSE and Novell

Much needed for Novell in its struggle to promote Suse

I think it is a great move for both Microsoft and Novell. It will be interesting to see how the agreement develops in the coming months.

I think Microsoft is starting to acknowledge that their products need to work with those from other vendors and the Open Source community. If it works, I think it will be great for the customer community.

You've chosen to dance with the devil. This is being painted as a good thing for all. Time will tell. I don't hate Micrsoft, but I definitely don't trust them, and neither should you.

The announcement looks like it will improve integration between Novell/SUSE products and Microsoft products. This improves the options available to our IT environment - which is never a bad thing.

It's a surprise, to be sure. I hope it's not "the beginning of the end" for Novell. It could be the same for Microsoft, I suppose, depending on how it works out. I'm confused about the virtualization offering -- running Linux on Windows, and vice versa, is already being done all over the world. What's the advantage of this "partnership."

Every contribution to open source by Novell is now tainted. How is the separation from Microsoft "Potential" IP encumbrances (whether real or imagined) to be separated from your contributions. This is a bad day for Open Source and Standards.

I think the agreement is very important, for although Microsoft has a stronger position with regards to device drivers, Unix (Linux) has fewer issues with Antivirus / multiple service packs, and greater system up time. The problems I am faced with are driven by many VB applications written for our desktop applications (greater than 1000 call center desktops) and I look forward to a time when porting VB applications into a Linux environment will become a reality, when it does, we will have a more fault tolerant environment and a greater toolset for unified custom built applications where migration from one platform (Microsoft to Linux) will be less painful. A SuSe user since relase 7.0 and former Red Hat user up until release 8.0 -- Keep up the good work and Thank You

Really a nice move. Though we all welcome FOSS, but the reality remains that we are force to use propritory softwares, which mostly runs on windows platform only. In such cases, your agreement is really welcome

I think that this could well provide sufficient impetus to really get the corporate market to adopt wide scale deployments from Novell/SuSE. The adoption of Linux is a political minefield, and having M$ come out and support SLES is a win beyond my wildest dreams. Congratulations Ron, I wonder just what hold you had on them to carry this off. Well done!

Cautiously optimistic. Would like to see DirectX made part of the agreement.

I think that it will be a good thing but I am like most people, wary of Microsoft and to a degree a bit cynical about their willingness to join the agreement. That being said, I hope that they have done it for the right reasons and that things are starting to change for the better in Redmond. I feel that this is a great opportunity for both Microsoft and Linux camps to share information as well as resources and deliver massive benefits for both.

It's a good step forward.

Great for Novell, I don't see a downside to it.

Like many other people in IT, I think it is about time that this happened. I've struggled for years with interoperability issues between Novell and Microsoft products. I hope this agreement will allow me to expand our use of Novell and Microsoft products together.

I'm afraid that Novell is going to be screwed over again! Novell had to prove a lot to linux community what they wanted with linux, now there is harder to talk about idenpendancy and freedom... But it could be a good move to I'm really having mixed feelings...

It is a win for the customers of Suse and Microsoft .

Novell needs to keep a tight grip on it's lunch bag.

Personally: great. I hope this will give novell more opportunies to sell linux in all windoes environments like in my company.

In two words: Mixed feelings.. At first glance it looks like a good step in better integration for Novell with MS and MS 3d party products and in that sense this announcement gave me hope. I'm all for a world in where OS's live in harmony with each other and can easily be mixed delivering maximum choice and flexible, solid solutions.. Caution also sticks : Not sure what this will mean for Novell/SuSE (and maybe even Linux) in the long run. For myself: This year I joined a small company focused on using Novell products (mainly Netware/SLEx/ZenWorks/Grouwpise). My main goal: Help keep Novell alive and bring the new Linux venture to our customers and keep MS AD out of the picture! We are actually migrating 4 MS sites back to Novell. ... It will be a sad day if this deal with MS means having to say goodbye to Novell. I will be watching closely how this partnership progresses and hope it turns out for the best (Novell/SuSE/Linux) in strengthening Novell's position again without putting the (non SuSE) Linux community out in the rain. Wishing you all the best & my heart still beats for Novell!!

Great step to strengthen Novell and Linux in the market that is dominated by Microsoft.

In theory it sounds good. I just hope that this isn't a ploy by M$ to crush Novell. Instead I hope everything that was told during the press conference is the truth, and that both companies follow through on their promises.

I've some mixed feelings about this. First of all it is strange to hear that MS thinks from a customers perspective, it is even stranger to hear that they believe in an mixed environment and that they are willing to cooperate. I've seen Novell always as the company who connected the diverse platforms and now MS is joining? Also there is a big chance that the Opensource community will see Novell as MS linux.

I think this is a great opportunity for Novell and SuSE to gain even more credibility in the world of IT. But I a fearing some dirty evil plans from Microsoft (media's help to increase my fear).

I'm all for use the platform / software that works, be it Windows, Linux, NetWare or what ever. Working for a School, we have to use several software packages that can only be run on a windows platform and MS SQL so we have a windows server for them. If theres better compatability for running windows servers virtualy on Linux or vice versa then all the better!

Sorry, but I don't trust Microsoft in any kind of business agreement. Good luck with them. If I did not have to support some client's Windows desktops they would be completely off my radar screen.

We need to know more fine detail as to what this agreement actually means. Novell customers need to be sure that Microsoft aren't just in it to squash Linux. We don't trust them!