Novell’s deal with Microsoft made mostly public

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 27 May 2007 16:43

Opinion and Analysis

 

Steinman answered that: “Right now, the GPLv3 is still in discussion. The latest draft of GPLv3 is in discussion. According to the latest version that was published on, I think, March 28, under that version, Novell will be able to ship Linux under a GPLv3. Period. There’s nothing in the current draft of GPLv3 that prevents Novell from shipping Linux. What about forking? There’s no need to have that discussion because the current draft of GPLv3 allows us to ship Linux. It’s still in discussion though so we have to wait and see what the final version is”.

That is good news for Novell, but their filing states that “If the Free Software Foundation (FSF) releases a new version of the GNU General Public License with certain currently proposed terms, our business may suffer harm”.
 
An except from the filing states that “If the final version of GPLv3 contains terms or conditions that interfere with our agreement with Microsoft or our ability to distribute GPLv3 code, Microsoft may cease to distribute SUSE Linux coupons in order to avoid the extension of its patent covenants to a broader range of GPLv3 software recipients, we may need to modify our relationship with Microsoft under less advantageous terms than our current agreement, or we may be restricted in our ability to include GPLv3 code in our products, any of which could adversely affect our business and our operating results. In such a case, we would likely explore alternatives to remedy the conflict, but there is no assurance that we would be successful in these efforts”.

So, aside from Novell’s own efforts in attracting as many new customers as possible and driving their own destiny, the fate of Novell is also in the hands of the community, new customers, the FSF who administer the GPLv3 and Microsoft, all of whom will need to work together nicely for everything to proceed smoothly.

We’re all about to discover whether these three organizations  - plus the community at large – can play nice, or not, letting this implementation of Linux and Windows working together compete with environments that are Windows-only, Linux-only and also against environments that already combine Windows and Linux servers well enough that they don’t need Novell or Microsoft’s help.

Clearly, if things don't go Novell's way, future business would be materially affected as Novell predict. But clearly both Novell and Microsoft must be reasonably confident that things will turn out their way to take such a risk, and can point to some big name customers taking Novell and Microsoft up on their offer, with more Linux being used that ever in some big businesses that were previously or primarily Windows-only. 

The fundamental problem for those who don’t like the idea of Novell and Microsoft working to make sure their products are interoperable is that the result is a form of Linux that has specifies ties to Microsoft to ensure both products work seamlessly together.

Instead of needing to rely on third party solutions to get your Linux and Windows infrastructure properly communicating, you’d be relying on Novell and Microsoft’s solution to ensure Suse talks to Windows Server. It’s not hard to see why some companies have chosen to take the Novell and Microsoft interoperability route, and it’s not hard to see why some people think that then locks them into Microsoft. It’s a pity that you can’t please all of the people all of the time or we wouldn’t be having this problem.

Anyway, unless you plan on getting rid of your Windows infrastructure entirely, having a version of Linux that plays nice with Windows would seem to be a good thing, although there will be plenty of reasons why this is not so.

The big question is will Microsoft embrace and extend, as per other examples in history, or will Linux survive and actually thrive? That's the $64 billion dollar question and part of the reason why the deal has caused such concern. What all need to know now is what the GPLv3 says when it is ratified by July this year. Until then, the race is on for Novell and Microsoft to sell as many Linux servers as possible, as the rest of the Linux community competes!