Comments on: The First Pawn Moves in the Novell Game http://www.artofcomplaint.com/archives/720 Making the Culture Of Compaint a Good Thing Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:12:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: julianaloofi.wordpress.com/ http://www.artofcomplaint.com/archives/720/comment-page-1#comment-85 julianaloofi.wordpress.com/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:12:55 +0000 http://www.artofcomplaint.com/?p=720#comment-85 I misused the word embrace in my post I think. Just replace it with "promote" :D I misused the word embrace in my post I think. Just replace it with “promote” :D

]]> By: julianaloofi.wordpress.com/ http://www.artofcomplaint.com/archives/720/comment-page-1#comment-84 julianaloofi.wordpress.com/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:10:42 +0000 http://www.artofcomplaint.com/?p=720#comment-84 I think Microsoft may spend a Billion dollars on Novell. But not to slow it down. They have spent money on embracing Novell products. They basically sell SLES. They wrote code to improve the interopability of their products. I don't think Microsoft thinks that they can ever "get" the server market. I think they see that Linux is where the server money is, so they want to get a share of that money, as every company would. I think it would be against Microsofts interests if Novell would fall victim to a corporate raider or stop their Linux business. Microsoft doesn't not like Linux because it's not Windows (that's the reason many Linux users like Linux though), but because it makes them earn less money. I think Microsoft has given up on the "let's kill Free Software" approach, but rather went to some kind of "if you cant kill it, join it". Linux is not threatening their desktop market right now, at least not as strong as Apple does. They constatntly improve interopability with the major Linux server players. Novell would be a great buy for them I think. They'd even get some excellent .NET developers and a very permissively licensed .NET framework "for free". Maybe they just didn't buy them yet because they fear an anti trust lawsuit? One last thing: Novell may be a big player in the Free Software ecosystem, but they still mainly are an infrastructure company. You don't buy Tesco to make them stop selling vegetables, do you? :) If Microsoft is behind this offer (which I highly doubt), then only to help Novell embrace their Open Source business. I think Microsoft may spend a Billion dollars on Novell. But not to slow it down.
They have spent money on embracing Novell products. They basically sell SLES. They wrote code to improve the interopability of their products.
I don’t think Microsoft thinks that they can ever “get” the server market. I think they see that Linux is where the server money is, so they want to get a share of that money, as every company would.

I think it would be against Microsofts interests if Novell would fall victim to a corporate raider or stop their Linux business. Microsoft doesn’t not like Linux because it’s not Windows (that’s the reason many Linux users like Linux though), but because it makes them earn less money. I think Microsoft has given up on the “let’s kill Free Software” approach, but rather went to some kind of “if you cant kill it, join it”.

Linux is not threatening their desktop market right now, at least not as strong as Apple does. They constatntly improve interopability with the major Linux server players.
Novell would be a great buy for them I think. They’d even get some excellent .NET developers and a very permissively licensed .NET framework “for free”. Maybe they just didn’t buy them yet because they fear an anti trust lawsuit?

One last thing: Novell may be a big player in the Free Software ecosystem, but they still mainly are an infrastructure company. You don’t buy Tesco to make them stop selling vegetables, do you? :)
If Microsoft is behind this offer (which I highly doubt), then only to help Novell embrace their Open Source business.

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