Novell Sells Out

[Evan Leibovitch]

I like this take the best, from Forbes of all places:

http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/03/linux-microsoft-novell-tech-cz_dl_1103linux_print.html

Mentions Ubuntu specifically as "another popular distribution" after Red
Hat.

Other quotable portions:

- Red Hat's publicity department cheerily proclaimed that the Oracle and
- Microsoft announcements represent a terrific turn of events. "It's
- fantastic news. Two of the main tech companies decided to get behind
- Linux within six days. If that's not validation, what is?"
- Note to Red Hat: When companies start talking about Microsoft "validating"
- their market, they're usually about to be validated out of existence.

- On Thursday night, I asked *Jeff Jaffe*, Novell's chief technology
officer,
- if he could think of a company that had partnered with Microsoft and
- done really well as a result. Which Microsoft alliance, I asked him,
- would he cite as the model that he'd like to emulate?
- His response: "I think this partnership is breaking new ground."
- Um, right. Unfortunately, the new ground they're breaking is probably
- Novell's gravesite.

- Evan