Last November, Novell and Microsoft announced a joint patent agreement to build, market and support new solutions to improve interoperability between their products. More than 40,000 new certificates for subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server have been activated since the agreement, now including Dell, as it is the first major systems provider to join the Microsoft and Novell business collaboration.

“This move is a huge success for the industry and, more specifically, for customers who haven’t purchased Linux through Dell and who want to migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for the IP assurance and interoperability benefits,” said Rick Becker, vice president of solutions at Dell Product Group.

As part of the agreement, Dell will be purchasing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SUSE-LES) certificates from Microsoft, and adopt a program to aid in migrating Linux users who are not part of the Dell family to the SUSE-LES.

“Dell’s embrace of the Novell-Microsoft agreement reflects a growing market reality: The two platforms of the future are Linux and Windows(R),and customers want them to work better together,” said Susan Heystee, vice president and general manager of global strategic alliances at Novell.

But this announcement has already attracted a great deal of criticism from the community, as many believe Microsoft is using their ‘patent agreement’ or ‘patent infringement immunity’ as a clenched fist; Microsoft will not file patent-rights lawsuits over any of its technology that is combined with SUSE Linux.

And Dell, with a semi-transparent halo on its head, is simply stuck in the middle, looking out for its customers and their demands.

“We’re focused on delivering solutions that help simplify customers’ IT operations,” said Becker. “Our customers have told us they want interoperability and expect technology vendors to work better together.”

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 6:43 am under Linux, Microsoft, Open source.

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