More Linux-type deals Mr Ballmer? Novell may beg to differ

Stan Beer
Thursday, 09 November 2006 15:35

Opinion and Analysis

Earlier this week, Microsoft struck an agreement with Suse Linux distributor Novell which runs until 2012.The agreement revealed yesterday, seemed to indicate that Microsoft would be tied exclusively to Novell for its Linux requirements. Just a few hours ago Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cast doubt on that assumption.

In an interview with Indian financial newspaper the Economic Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a statement that may well have made more than a few market watchers sit up and wonder if they had heard right. "We will love to put that kind of agreement in place with anyone who distributes Linux software, Red Hat, whoever else," Steve Ballmer was reported as saying.

It may be just that I was incorrectly under the impression from the publicly disclosed agreement between Microsoft and Novell that there is a three-year exclusive arrangement between Novell and Microsoft. Or maybe Mr Baller was just musing about what Microsoft would like to do once its agreement runs its term with Novell.

However, one wonders how talk from Microsoft's CEO about wanting to do similar Linux deals with Red Hat would sit with the folks at the Novell command center in Massachusetts, when the ink has barely dried on the paper they jointly signed.

Given the stormy relationship between Novell and Microsoft in the past and Mr Ballmer's recent statement, one wonders how the new "alliance" will pan out over the next three years.