I’m not going to to point you to thousands of links, there’s been enough media coverage on Microsoft and Novell’s deal. I’ll just link you to Groklaw’s collection of others’ reactions. I think it’s amazing how both these companies could work it out. Microsoft and Novell are long-time rivals, since the days of NetWare.
In a nut shell, the deal breaks down to three parts:
- Neither company will sue over patents.
- Improved office formats’ interoperability.
- Promise to protect SuSE Linux developers from patent suits.
The first part of the deal doesn’t really affect us. Novell obviously needs protection from a the larger gorilla. However, I’m not very comfortable with the fact that Microsoft can now claim they have beat Linux, and that they have been the innovators. Microsoft’s reputation of crushing its partners and acquired companies is might be slightly worrying.
Of course on the other hand, a deal like this does show that Linux has gained ground; enough grounds for Microsoft to need a commercial entity they can sue. It’s been claimed that Linux infringes over 200 patents, but so what? There’s nobody to sue over them. Law suits might slow down big corporations’ support for Linux, but it’s not as easy to track down each and every infringement.
The other two parts of the deal are our concern, as users and developers.
Office interoperability is great, but we never needed it in the first place. There’s already a plugin for Microsoft Office to export ODF. OpenOffice.org is also doing a fairly good job at reading and writing Microsoft Office formats. The only reason to include interoperability as part of the Microsoft–Novell deal is peace of mind. Again, the way I see it is its mostly publicity. Microsoft needs to be assure their users and customers that Office is “future-proof”.
As for the last part, the promise to protect SuSE Linux developers. It saddens me that they didn’t extend it to include all Linux developers. It’s not fair to expect either side to even suggest it, but it was possible, especially if Microsoft is sincerely looking for innovation in the Linux market.
I feel that this announcement is largely about PR. Let’s hope only good comes out of it. SCO gave us enough headaches for this decade.