Microsoft, Novell open interoperability lab
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(InfoWorld) - Cross-platform virtualization is top of the list of projects that a new joint development lab operated by Microsoft and Novell will work on, executives said. The companies expect to announce the opening of the lab on Wednesday. They firstÂ announcedÂ plans for the joint labÂ back in November 2006, when they formed a controversialÂ patent-licensing and interoperability agreement. The companies have already begun to work together on several interoperability projects, including one that will ensure that Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 will run well on Suse Linux Enterprise Server and that Suse Linux will run on Server 2008 in virtualized environments. The capability, however, won't be available until after Microsoft ships the server next year and then releases its virtualization capability within 180 days after that. The new lab is located in Cambridge, Mass., and is currently is staffed by two directors and five test engineers. The companies hope to hire three more by the end of the year. Engineers from both companies can remotely access resources in the lab and contribute to the work there, said Suzanne Forsberg, the lab's co-director for Novell. She shares director duties with Tom Hanrahan, director of Linux interoperability at Microsoft. In addition to the virtualization project, the engineers will also work on document format translator capabilities that will allow sharing between various document standards such as open XML and OpenOffice. The goal of the original agreement between Microsoft and Novell was to ensure that operating systems from the companies work better in environments where they co-exist. The lab will have 80 servers so that engineers can test how their developments will operate in an environment similar to an enterprise data center, Hanrahan said. XandrosÂ andÂ LinspireÂ have also struck partnerships with Microsoft, similar to the deal with Novell. Red Hat, however, and others Linux vendors, have said theyÂ aren't interested in partnering with Microsoft.
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Novell will support Microsoft Office's Open XML file format in its version of OpenOffice by the end of January.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. have wasted little time in demonstrating there is real work being done as part of their recent Linux interoperability pact. Just a month afterÂ the historic deal between the companies, Novell said Monday it will support the proprietary document format in Microsoft Office 2007, Open XML, in its open-source version of the OpenOffice productivity suite by the end of January. Novell also will release software that will bidirectionally translate word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between its version of OpenOffice.org's productivity suite and Microsoft Office to the OpenOffice.org project so Open XML can become a part of that open-source project, the company said. However, this does not guarantee that Open XML will be integrated into the OpenOffice.org code, said Justin Steinman, a Novell director of marketing for Linux. "We are going to release the code to the open-source community. Whether it gets integrated or not is up to the community," he said. Novell and Microsoft worked together on the translation project, which will allow users of a new release of OpenOffice due in January to create, save and send files as Open XML documents, Steinman said. Creating interoperability between the OpenOffice and Microsoft Office suites was a goal that was part of the companies' deal, announced Nov. 2, to make Microsoft's proprietary software work more seamlessly with Novell's Suse Linux and other open-source software from the company. The Open XML work will ultimately allow users to more easily share files between Microsoft Office 2007 and OpenOffice, which support different document formats, Steinman said. The native document format in OpenOffice is OpenDocument Format (ODF), an XML-based file format recognized as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Microsoft so far has chosen not to support ODF and instead created its own file format, Open XML, for Office 2007. Microsoft's lack of support for ODF has been controversial, and the company further stirred up concern in the industry that it was trying to promote its own proprietary file format as an industry standard instead of ODF by submitting Open XML to Ecma International in November 2005. Ecma is a standards organization that can fast-track technology standards through the ISO. Ecma plans to vote on whether to approve Open XML for submission to the ISO as an international standard on Dec. 7. Microsoft released Office 2007, which supports Open XML, last week to business customers. The suite is expected to be widely available to consumers in retail outlets on Jan. 30.
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Officially official Microsoft has extended its controversial partnership with Novell to make the Silverlight cross-platform, cross-browser media player run on Linux desktops.â¦
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Microsoft has appointed an executive to lead efforts to make its software more interoperable with Novell's Suse Linux.
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Semantic interoperability remains a utopian vision without many practical implementations.
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Revised docs handed in Microsoft has handed in revised interoperability information to the European Commission.â¦
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Open source data integration vendor Talend has been working with Microsoft to build better interoperability between Talend&#39;s Open Studio product and Microsoft&#39;s business software, Talend said Tuesday.Open Studio is an ETL (extract, transform, and load) tool that has been downloaded more than 150,000 times, according to Talend. The company also makes an on-demand version of the product, and an Integration Suite for use by teams.While Open Studio already worked with SQL Server, the new work will result in compatibility with Microsoft&#39;s business applications, including Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics CRM, and Dynamics GP, according to Yves de Montcheuil, Talend&#39;s vice president of marketing. It will also enable Open Studio to work with SQL Server 2008, which is set to launch in February.De Montcheuil said Microsoft approached his company first&#160;and offered technical support to help create the new interoperability. The entreaty ties into&#160;Microsoft&#39;s recent efforts to engage the open source community, with which it has had a decidedly mixed relationship.Microsoft, of course, has developed its own ETL tools for years, from the earlier Data Transformation Services to the more recent&#160;Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services.&#160;DTS was &quot;very rough and very basic,&quot; de Montcheuil said, adding that MSIS &quot;made a significant leap forward.&quot; Still, he argued, &quot;It&#39;s probably well-suited for people who are in a pure Microsoft environment.&quot;In contrast, Talend targets customers with highly heterogeneous environments. &quot;We know information systems are a composite of technologies,&quot; he said. &quot;No company is homogeneous.&quot;
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has appointed an executive to lead its controversial efforts to make its software more interoperable with Novell's Suse Linux. The company has named Tom Hanrahan to the new position of director of Linux interoperability, reporting to Sam Ramji, director of platform technology strategy. Ramji runs the Microsoft Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft tests its products to see how they interact with Linux and other open-source software. Hanrahan's duties will include running the new Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab,Â announced in November when the two companies formed a patent-licensing and interoperability deal. The deal will, in part, ensure Novell's Suse Linux works better with Windows in environments where the two OSes co-exist. Experts from both companies will work in the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab to test and build interoperable offerings. As part of their deal, Microsoft and Novell also are co-marketing each other's technology, and Microsoft is offering Suse Linux maintenance and support coupons to customers who want to run the OS in their IT environments. But Microsoft's ability to do the latter could be threatened by the passage of the GNU GPLv3 (General Public License Version 3) in light of bold claims by the vendor thatÂ it will seek damages for 235 of its patentsÂ it says both Linux and other open-source software violate. A provision of GPLv3 provides patent protection for anyone receiving software, such as Linux, distributed by the license. Microsoft executives also have used the Novell deal as the blueprint for how it wants companies violating its patents to pay for them, while Novell insists to this day its Linux distribution does not infringe on any Microsoft patents. Prior to joining Microsoft, Hanrahan was director of engineering at the Linux Foundation. He also has served as senior program manager in charge of software development and testing at IBM's Linux Technology Center in Oregon. Before that, he spent 11 years at Sequent Computer Systems and several years working for Intel.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Microsoft joins Concordia Project to improve interoperability among identity management systems.
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MIT researchers merge Wikis, GPS, and the Semantic Web to enable interactive navigation.
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Microsoft and Novell this week released new details about their interoperability alliance, saying they are focusing on four areas of technology to address significant problems faced by enterprise customers: virtualization, Web services for managing physical and virtual servers, directory and identity interoperability, and document format compatibility.
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Cementing a peculiar partnership among rivals, Microsoft and Novell are opening an eight-employee lab to make products interoperable.
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Just before Christmas, Novell released it much anticipated public beta of Open Enterprise Server (OES). Based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, OES includes Novell&#39;s NetWareÃÂ® and SUSEÃÂ® LINUX Enterprise Server
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Tech giants Microsoft and Cisco have agreed to develop and promote interoperability between their respective network access technologies.
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Novell has begun a widely available trial of its Open Enterprise Server, software that combines tools from the company&#39;s proprietary NetWare with the open-source SuSE Linux operating system.
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Under the effort announced today, the two will share APIs and develop protocols to enable better interoperability between Microsoft's Network Access Protection technology and Cisco's Network Admission Control technology.