Microsoft-Novell Takes Open-Source to China 63
Bibek Paudel writes "In a move to tap the growing market of free and open source-softwares in developing economies, Microsoft and Novell have announced they were expanding their alliance into the Chinese market. Microsoft and Novell believe big enterprises in China are willing to pay to have the US firms keep hybrid systems updated and running and for assurances that there is permission to use patented software involved. The companies are marketing 'supported Linux' in which they take a fee to maintain software systems blending the open-source programs with Microsoft products such as Vista, Office, Excel and Outlook.The longtime US computer software rivals unveiled their alliance in late 2006, saying their engineers were 'building a bridge' between Microsoft's proprietary software and Novell programs based on the Linux operating system. Sunday was the first time the firms publicly targeted a specific country with their effort."
Hmmm (Score:1, Insightful)
Sure, easy cash was one thing, but selling out to Novell and the rest was a pretty stupid mistake. Recall the kindness of Novell when they buried one Kevin Mitnick for "looking at, and copying their source code"... yeah, that Novell.
I have 50 bucks that say this will all be done to try to put Red Hat and the other useful groups out of business. After that, expect to see them claim that "most of the GPL source is no longer in use" etc. Hell, after Stallman dies, I can almost guarantee that they'll buy out the entire GNU foundation or buy seats on the leadership of the GNU and steer it back into the fold.
Am I surprised? Nope, not one bit.
Re:Is this equivalent to MS giving up on China? (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying one thing and doing another... (Score:3, Insightful)