Microsoft deal with Novell to support Suse Linux

By Stan Beer
Friday, 03 November 2006 02:03

Home IT

Taking a page out of Oracle's book, Microsoft intends to enter the Linux space through a deal with Suse Linux distributor Novell, according to a Wall Street Journal Report. The news, which has stunned the market and, in stark contrast to Oracle's announcement of offering Red Hat support, sent Novell shares skyrocketing.

According to the report, Microsoft will offer sales support of Suse Linux and will work together with Novell to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers.

Another key point of the report is that Microsoft has agreed not to pursue any patent rights over software incorporated into Suse Linux.

Microsoft's move to embrace open source has become more apparent in recent days and today's news follows an announcement yesterday that Microsoft intends to cooperate with open source scripting language PHP specialist Zend Technologies, to enable PHP to work better with Windows.

The reported relationship between Microsoft and Novell stands in stark contrast to that of Oracle and Red Hat, where Oracle, currently a Red Hat partner, threatens to pull the rug out from under the Linux leader by starting a price war on Red Hat support.