Enterprises that worry about running Windows and Linux together in a single datacentre better take a close look at news that Novell and Microsoft served up today.

The two companies today unveiled a broad ranging partnership that promises to tackle all of the two main issues that Linux is facing today: the patent threat and interoperability.

Their chief executives Steve Ballmer (right) and Ron Hovespian (below) at a San Francisco press conference unveiled a cross license patent agreement, ensuring users and Linux developers that they won't face legal charges for using Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server and Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop software. The pledge includes individual developers that contribute to the Linux kernel and all developers that contribute code to OpenSuse.org. The last group indirectly includes all developers contributing to the Linux kernel that is used as the basis for OpenSuse.

03 Nov 2006

Secondly, the two parties will support each other's operating system to run as virtual systems on top of the Xen virtualisation technology. SLES 10 today offers Xen support and Microsoft will build it into its forthcoming Windows Server codenamed "Longhorn".

They will also cooperate to create web services standards that allow users to manage servers regardless of the operating system.

And it doesn’t stop there. Another part of the agreement will see Microsoft distributing 70,000 coupons each year for Novell's SLES to its customers to run as virtual operating systems.

Just the last part will greatly benefit Novell's market share in the overall Linux market, which is lagging behind Red Hat's by a street length.

Next, Novell now gets to ensure its customers that they won't be sued by Microsoft for any patent infringement. Red Hat can't and won't offer that.

Suse users might still risk patent claims from other companies, but Microsoft is generally considered by far the greatest threat to Linux. And besides, Novell has a significant patent portfolio that will deter most companies from going after its customers.

Oracle last week took the lead with its support programme for Red Hat Linux, but the company only got to enjoy it for a very short  period of time. Today Novell jumped to the top of the pack, and it's up to Red Hat and Novell to respond.

technorati tags: novell, suse, steve+ballmer, ron+hovsepian, microsoft, SLES, linux, red+hat,