What does Microsoft's community open source software repository CodePlex have in common with massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)? Answer: they both have an enormous surge of activity, traffic and popularity the day a new World of Warcraft (WoW) patch hits the Internet.

Novell vice-president Miguel de Icaza has dismissed Microsoft's bid to sell patents that could be used to attack Linux, saying it was not a problem as the patents were now in good hands.

The appointment of Novell vice-president Miguel de Icaza to the board of Microsoft's CodePlex Foundation has been done for one reason - the Foundation will serve as a handy vehicle to increase the use of Mono.

Over the past week, a couple of events have served to highlight the extent to which Novell vice-president Miguel de Icaza is helping Microsoft to implement its strategy of curbing the growth of free and open source software.