Some folks say it is bad for Linux some say it is good. I think it’s MS trying to push Linux out. They failed with the SCO vs. Linux lawsuit so they’ll try it this way. This deal is MS almost getting it’s wish. MS now gets paid for every copy of SLES(Suse Enterprise) sold. The article mentions windows is the platform for Office. However we don’t need windows to run office or to have office compatibility. Crossover Office, we also have OPenOffice. The article also mentions that the results of Openoffice word documents aren’t the same as word documents. They actually are. I have never had any anomalies shown when having OO open Word documents and vice versa.
*update* While I am not sure of the balkanization of Linux as this article claims(due to other large patent holders like Nvidia and Sun) the fact that MS is trying it’s best to kill Linux is detailed in this quote, “”Let me be clear about one thing, we don’t license our intellectual property to Linux because of the way Linux licensing GPL framework works, that’s not really a possibility,” said Microsoft chief executive, Steve Ballmer.
“Novell is actually just a proxy for its customers, and it’s only for its customers,” he added. “This does not apply to any forms of Linux other than Novell’s SUSE Linux. And if people want to have peace and interoperability, they’ll look at Novell’s SUSE Linux. If they make other choices, they have all of the compliance and intellectual property issues that are associated with that.”
this is not the death knell for Red Hat like many are saying. If anything it will give Red Hat strength since folks will see what Novell is doing and turn to a truly GPL friendly company like Red Hat.