Microsoft endorsing Novell's Suse Linux distribution could be good or bad, depending on who you talk to. But there appears to be nothing in between.

Ask Ingres CTO Dave Dargo or OSDL chief executive Stuart Cohen for instance, and they will tell you that the deal has neutralized a threat to Linux and open source. And what's good for customers is good for Linux.

Ask open source advocate Bruce Perrens or legal expert Eben Moglen, and they'll tell you that this is just making things worse.

04 Nov 2006

It isn't a coincidence that the first group people that want to build commercial enterprises on top of Linux and open source. The OSDL is an organisation that is sponsored by CA, IBM and Novell, among others, and that aims to increase the adoption of Linux in the enterprise. Ingres isn't just the steward of the open source database, but also is aggressively trying to build a profitable business on top of it.

Moglen and Perens meanwhile represent the idealistic side of the open source community.

Often they get along quite well, but in some cases they collide - like they did over the Novell-Microsoft deal.

The fuse in this case is provided by Microsoft. The first group takes Microsoft as a given force in the IT market. They might not like the company, but for pragmatic reasons put up with that fact that too many people are running Microsoft products for the company to just go away.

To the second group Microsoft is the source of all evil. They believe that open source and free content is an inevitable force that can't be stopped. That software patents and license fees are merely a tax on society that doesn’t represent anything good. That Vista will fail in the market place and that Microsoft's Office business is going down the drain.

If Novell tends towards the pragmatic group, Red Hat could be labelled as a follower of the traditional movement.

Open source needs both groups to advance. We need to challenge conventions, but also are required to make sure that open source meets customer needs. There is a vacancy for a peace maker. Perhaps IBM wants to apply – just like it did in 1999?

Novell and Microsoft holding hands

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