Novell goes public with terms of Microsoft Linux deal
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(InfoWorld) - Novell has published details of its landmark November 2006Â Linux partnership agreements with Microsoft. Novell published on Friday redacted versions of the three agreements it signed with Microsoft in its annual 10K filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, providing the public with itsÂ first detailed lookÂ into a deal that some see as critical to the future of Linux. The 10K filing had been delayed by an internal stock options review at Novell, which was concluded Wednesday. Under the terms of the agreements, Microsoft will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on licensing fees and sales and marketing costs over five years, including $240 million for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates. For its part, Novell has agreed to pay Microsoft a percentage of revenue from open-source products. [ SEE ALSO:Â Microsoft, Novell defend pactÂ | Special Report:Â Microsoft takes aim at open source, LinuxÂ ] Linux advocates are expected to scour the documents for signs of how the agreement may affect Linux and whether anything in it will put Microsoft or Novell inÂ potential violation of the upcoming version 3 of the GNU General Public license (GPL). The GPL is used in licensing many components of the Linux operating system. Open-source advocate Bruce Perens said he would be looking to see exactly what Novell was given through the deal and whether there is any requirement for the Linux vendor to defend Microsoft's patent claims. "What I'm actually looking for is, to what extent was there a violation of faith?" he said. Microsoft has claimedÂ that Linux violates more than 235 of its patents, and because the deal offers patent protection to Novell users, it is seen as potentially driving a wedge in the Linux community. "Novell had a choice here, and Novell's choice was to be in the same boat with the rest of the free software community, or not," Perens said. Based on an initial reading of the documents, Perens said the deal does not appear to provide full patent protection to Linux users. "Novell did not get complete rights regarding Microsoft patents," he said. "For example, office productivity applications are specifically excluded. ... OpenOffice.org is excluded by name, WINE and Open-Xchange are excluded by name," Novell executives declined to be interviewed about the filings. "We've already provided the high-level comments when we announced the deal in November -- around making Linux and Windows work better together, the areas of tech cooperation, the covenants not to sue. All the customer-focus stuff that drove the deal," said Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry, via instant message. "The agreements provide more meat on the bones in support of those objectives." The patent agreement between the two companies seems to make it clear that Novell does not accept any of Microsoft's patent claims. Section 3.4 says, "Nothing in this Agreement shall imply, or be construed as an admission or acknowledgement by a Party, that any Patents of the other Party are infringed, valid or enforceable." Microsoft and Novell say the deal has helped push Linux adoption in the enterprise by promoting interoperability between the two platforms. Contrary to its image as a threat to open source and Linux, Microsoft is the chief source of Linux business for Novell, and the deal between the two companies has been a boon for SUSE Linux, said Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Novell's Linux and Open Platform Solutions, speaking earlier this week. "Microsoft was Novell's number one channel partner in the first quarter of 2007," he said. "We've seen 60 percent (first-quarter) growth in SUSE, year over year." Paul Roberts, a senior editor at InfoWorld, contributed to this story.
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Novell today unveiled Linux Desktop 9, claiming that the platform is robust and complete enough to offer a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows on corporate desktops.
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Novell&#39;s promise of a blended Linux and NetWare networking environment became reality with the recent launch of the public beta of Open Enterprise Server (OES).
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Microsoft last week announced antitrust settlements with Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), ending years of legal wrangling.
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Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) is poised to launch the latest version of its SuSE Linux operating system, providing new features designed to appeal to both Linux neophytes and current users of the open-source desktop software.
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TechWeb - The Free Software Foundation is reviewing Novell's right to sell new versions of Linux operating system software after the open-source community criticized Novell for teaming up with Microsoft.
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Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) offer a new desktop version of Linux for its enterprise customers, the company announced Monday.
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Novell Inc. plans to seek out more deals similar to its recent marketing and licensing pact with Microsoft Corp. as the company embraces partnerships and moves away from selling its open-source software directly to small and medium-sized companies.
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com December 27, 2004, 6:59 AM PT. Novell has begun a widely available trial of its Open Enterprise Server, software that combines tools from company&#39;s proprietary NetWare with the open-source SuSE Linux operating system.
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Microsoft has reached legal settlements with two of its biggest adversaries in the software industry, Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
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(InfoWorld) - Novell Inc. will release its first desktop-and-server suite for small businesses in September, an offering clearly aimed at taking market share from rival and sometime partner Microsoft Corp. The Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition is based on Novell's Suse Linux distribution and includes the company's Open Enterprise Server for storage, user and rights administration, and clustering and failover capabilities. On the desktop, the suite includes the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Novell's GroupWise software for e-mail and a calendar. The release of a small business suite is an effort by Novell to attract customers, a problem the company has encountered while transitioning its business away from its NetWare network operating system to Linux, said Laurent Lachal, open-source research director for analyst firm Ovum PLC in London. Microsoft remains the vendor to beat in the small business area, although the market is somewhat fragmented, he added. "The SMB [small to midsize business] market is the new frontier for everyone in the IT industry, whether it's Microsoft, SAP or IBM," Lachal said. Novell pulled no punches comparing its suite to offerings from Microsoft, even thoughÂ the two vendors struck a controversial agreementÂ last November involving cross-patent licensing and projects to make their products more interoperable. Novell said one license for its suite will support five servers and 200 users, while one license for Microsoft's Small Business Server tops out at 75 users. The vendor warned that users of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2 suite would also have to buy Microsoft Office separately. "The Novell edition of OpenOffice.org -- which runs on both Windows and Linux desktops -- provides 90 percent of the same functionality as Microsoft Office, supports Microsoft Office formats and is included with Novell Open Workgroup Suite at no extra cost," according to a Novell statement. By capping at 200 the number of users for a single license, it would appear Novell has set its sights on the U.S. market, Lachal said. The definition of small businesses in Europe tends to encompass far fewer employees than what are considered small businesses in the U.S., he said. Â
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Blog: Novell takes a lot of heat for its patent deal with Microsoft and rightfully so. But there is much that the company is doing to advance the cause and state of open source in the industry.
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Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) has pledged to use its patent portfolio to protect the company's open-source software and proprietary offerings against potential legal attacks based on intellectual-property rights.
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Microsoft settled with Novell for $536 million. Novell also intends to file a new suit againt Microsoft regrading word-processing software.
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Supporters of the free PC operating  system Linux are preparing to counter a recent Microsoft Corp.   deal which established for the first time the  principle of paying the software giant to use Linux.
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The Linux vendor partners with Microsoft in one respect and takes it head-on in another. This time, the results are mixed as Novell suffers a small quarterly loss.
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Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) is offering a test version of its Open Enterprise Server (OES) platform, a blend of the company's proprietary networking software and open source technology that the company said promises to offer businesses greater flexibility with I.T. systems.