Microsoft Is Set to Give Linux a Boost Through Partnership With Novell

The Wall Street Journal ^ | November 2, 2006 2:59 p.m | ROBERT A. GUTH

[Salo]

The March of the Penguins continues.

[Salo]

GirlBird's head is going to asplode pings.

[Redcloak]

I was wondering what that "SCREEEEEECH-BOOOM" sound was.

[goldstategop]

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft ditches Windows with all its problems and buys out SUSE Linux. That solves a ton of problems for Redmond. But its would leave its anti-virus softwaremaker partners none too happy.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[rzeznikj at stout]

Man, this can get ugly.

IB4GE...

[rzeznikj at stout]

Suse isn't its own company; it's owned by Novell. And IIRC, Suse is one of their flagship products.

Rather, I see MS trying to rip a few pages out of Novell's playbook to use in Windows--and perhaps vice-versa.

[Post-Neolithic]

"The two companies have also agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers."

MS is way behind the times. In fact in order for them to do this they will be treading on a whole lotta Copyrights. It's called Lindows.. I.E. Win4Lin and also Wine. MS must be feeling the heat.

[JZelle]

Novell's stock went up almost a point today. I bought some back in the early 90s for $8 a share, and it went all the way up to the 40s. My wife said I should sell it but I held, only to watch it drop steadily.

[blues_guitarist]

"Windows with all its problems and buys out SUSE Linux."

I predicted this years ago. The only sensible future for winders has to be something based on the unix model. Cannibalizing a flavor of linux and calling it "Winders FW" (Finally Works,) would be a smart business move.

[Echo Talon]

[MikefromOhio]

Good Lord.

This is a train wreck waiting to happen....

[Michael Barnes]

NO NO NO!! Leave my suse alone. 10.1 is runnin' like a champ (and is purty with xgl and compiz)

[MediaMole]

Lindows was the old name for the Linux distro called Linspire.

Wine does run some Windows software, but certain things, like Photoshop are unusable. Photoshop always crashes under wine when right-clicking.

Microsoft's collaboration with Novell looks like another version of their "embrace, expand, destroy" strategy. If they were smart, they would take Apple's lead and develop an operating system from BSD.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

"Winders FW"

ROFL!

[Michael Barnes]

You checked out the "Gimpshop" package? Makes gimp menus mimic PS.

[twntaipan]

Microsoft: Soon to be bringing virii and malware to Linux.

[blues_guitarist]

"NO NO NO!! Leave my suse alone. 10.1 is runnin' like a champ"

Yeah, I'm running that too. Although I have see a few bugs with windowmaker. Other than that everything is smokin'!

[tacticalogic]

MS has a history of absorbing or simply stealing the IP of companies they partner with.

[palmer]

Sounds more like a partnership to help Novell kill Linux.

[MediaMole]

I use Linux all the time. Gimp is fine for some image editing -- I prefer it for creating web images, but the design doesn't lend itself to editing large files, it also lacks the advanced Photoshop stuff and doesn't feature any exif editing. I shoot a lot of images that have to be placed into a database that uses the exif data for searching. It is either Windows or Mac because there is nothing in Linux that matches Photoshop for advanced photo editing or Photomechanic for rapid exif data editing.