Microsoft To Announce Linux Partnership

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Microsoft is entering into an unusual partnership with Novell that gives a boost to Linux, people familiar with the companies tell WSJ.com. From the article: 'Under the pact, which isn't final, Microsoft will offer sales support of Suse Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell. The two companies have also agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers. The two companies are expected to announce details of their plan today at a press conference in San Francisco. In addition, Microsoft won't assert rights over patents over software technology that may be incorporated into Suse Linux, the people said. Businesses that use Linux have long worried that Microsoft would one day file patent infringement suits against sellers of the rival software.'"

This is about Mono, isn't it?

[neiras]

It's gotta be (at least partially) about Mono [mono-project.com]. Novell's legal folks were doing a major patent review on it last I heard. I guess the "It'll all be okay! Trust us!" approach to handling potential legal action from Microsoft ended up not holding water with the sharks.

Read Seth Nickell's thoughts on the issue [gnome.org], particuliarly the section entitled "The Horror Story". It's happening.

It's bad enough that Tomboy [beatniksoftware.com] is in GNOME and F-Spot [f-spot.org] (Novell again) is so damned nice. Users are already demanding these applications, because the alternatives suck. Developers love C# 'cause it's so nice to build with. The first few hits are free.

The whole Mono patent issue really strikes me as a Novell play for market share - they work a deal with Microsoft, write gorgeous apps in C# that everyone wants, encourage competing distros to integrate those apps, then laugh as Microsoft takes out their competition in court. Or something. IANAL, obviously. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid.

Not that old chestnut again

[ClosedSource]

WordPerfect was available on many different platforms. They should have been working on a Windows version long before OS/2 was imminent (Ironically WordPerfect's eventual owner, Corel, didn't made that mistake). The reason they didn't had nothing to do with OS/2, it was because their word-processing philosophy was totally against everything Windows stood for. They prided themselves on having a "blank sheet" interface uncluttered by menus or other user-friendly devices (yes, they added a menu very late, but it was turned off by default).

I remember the president of WordPerfect Corp saying that they really didn't want to do a Windows version but they were going to due to customer demand. When they finally delivered a Windows version it was crap. I crashed it in the first 15 mins of use.

Yes, it is a trap!

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is just extorting Novell. I don't know how this has been spun so positively for Microsoft.

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;20186091 85;fp;2;fpid;1 [linuxworld.com.au]

...under the patent cooperation agreement, both companies are paying each other upfront in exchange for a release of patent liability. Additionally, Novell also will make running royalty payments to Microsoft based on a percentage of revenue from open-source products.
Basically, the agreement ensures that Novell Suse customers are protected against patent litigation from Microsoft.