Ron Hovespian made the comments to reporters in Australia on Thursday. He mentioned that Vista took over five years to produce, while open source is much easier to develop for. Also, the agreement brings Novell closer to Microsoft's customers. Although many IT administrators will openly voice their dislike, the reality of the matter is most use the Windows operating system to run their servers. With Novell closer to the customer, the chance of migrating to Linux is much greater, he claims. Hovespian defended the deal, saying that while the company itself did not have to do it, it was in the best interest of its customers. Additionally, he refuted the misconception that the two companies signed a patent cross-licensing agreement. "We did not sign a patent cross licensing agreement, what we agreed to was not to sue any customers over patents," he was quoted by news sources as telling reporters. Microsoft and Novell could still sue each other, he added. Novell says that the agreement has proven to be a positive move for the company, citing some "big wins" it has seen. Following the agreement, the company sold about 35,000 SUSE Linux support certificates, one of the more lucrative parts of its Linux business. Microsoft has also held up its end of the pact by hiring sales and marketing staff to support SUSE Linux. An interoperability lab is still in the works as well, Hovespian says. But after all the good feelings, don't expect Novell to take it easy on Vista. Hovespian said that Novell is "going to attack Vista" head on in the years to come. Add a Comment BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Name (required): E-mail (required): Enter Your Comment: By foxfyre posted Feb 17, 2007 - 9:57 PM I am not sure what the real story is here, except that perhaps a bit of over the top imagery was used. Novell is still a business, and it should be expected that they are going to 'fight' to capture as much market share as they can. Cooperative agreements aside, there should be no assumption that any company is going to voluntarily ignore any particular sector of the market! Suse still 'owns' the European Linux market sector and it is dominant in the Linux 64 bit realm. And to dismiss the growth in enterprise support contracts is one of the stupidest comments I have heard in a long time! Of course that means it is just another post here! Score: 0 By robmanic44 posted Feb 17, 2007 - 9:22 PM Google and Cisco can compete against Microsoft, they have tons of money. Novell has zip. My recent experiences with SUSE have not been good and you can't do squat without a product. Score: 0 By CarLox posted Feb 17, 2007 - 6:28 PM i think that the linux users are hurt by the "monster" called microsoft and mac users are, too. the meaning of microsoft been sussesful at marketing is not just because the compativility it has, it has a easy-to-use GUI, and people that dont know about computer dont want to deal with writing code or memorizing procedures to work in linux or mac or even Unix (BSD for example) Score: 0 By foxfyre posted Feb 17, 2007 - 9:52 PM "writing code or memorizing procedures" on the Mac??? You can live your entire life in their elegant GUI and never have the need to open a terminal session. Heck, I know Mac users who have had their machine for years that still have NO idea that there IS a command line terminal session! Score: 0 By Hollywood__ posted Feb 16, 2007 - 10:02 PM I have to recant everything I said about Vista in the past, I've got it (pre-installed on a new notebook) but not the upgrade for PC's that cant handle it and would perform better with XP. Linux is for people who still think Microsoft is evil and down want to be like everybody else. I agree with the non conformist on some thingsa but not the most popular O/S on the planet. If you want programs to run and hardware to run properly, you have to use Windows, period. Vista has it s*** together so far, it's been about a week and I am extremely happy. Score: 0 By Natrunner edited Feb 16, 2007 - 8:26 PM Until Linux is easy for anyone(from grandma to gamer), this is nothing more than just a pipe dream. I agree Linux is very flexible and open source but it is just too difficult for the average computer user. Score: 0 By Jayed posted Feb 18, 2007 - 12:56 AM yeah someone needs to make linux more ez its becoming better and better with ubuntu and stuff soon it might surpass windows maybe in 2055 http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Score: 0 By bourgeoisdude posted Feb 16, 2007 - 7:06 PM "Until Linux is easy for anyone(from grandma to gamer), this is nothing more than just a pipe dream. I agree Linux is very flexible and open source but it is just too dificult for the average computer user." Word. Score: 0 By uberfly posted Feb 16, 2007 - 1:42 PM Well, Novell's got to rally their troops somehow. Too bad their troops don't have any ammo. Score: 0 By roj posted Feb 16, 2007 - 7:18 AM This is simply more empty posturing form a washed up company. Score: 0 By darkxiiindp posted Feb 16, 2007 - 6:02 AM Be the best Linux distro before think about Vista. 35,000, so big... Score: 0 By steve17 posted Feb 15, 2007 - 8:16 PM lol that is pretty funny that they brag about 35,000 SUSE linux certificates. watch out microsoft!!! here they come. ahahaha. thats like taking on the apple ipod and selling 35,000 of ur players and think u even show up in the market share. LOL! what a tard. hes blowing steam out his a$$ Score: 0 By foxfyre edited Feb 17, 2007 - 9:59 PM Hey genius, they are not talking about selling 35,000 copies of Linux! They are talking about selling 35,000 enterprise support contracts! You either need to get a new cereal box from which to get your data, or ask your mom for help with the big words! Score: 0 By steve17 posted Feb 18, 2007 - 4:32 PM how about u go find the same numbers for microsoft and compare the two huh? instead of attacking me with missguided anger. idk wtf is up ur a$$ but u should prolly pull it out sometime soon. and exactly what words to i need help with? typos do not reflect the ability to spell or speak properly. Score: 0 By UniversityofKentucky posted Feb 15, 2007 - 7:26 PM All bark and NO bite. I used Netware ever since 3.11. They had a great NOS, but screwed their consumers, had a superiority complex, and rested on their laurels. For the desktop, SUSE is fine, but Novell blew their future years ago and relagated themselves to second rate. They purchased/adopted Novell DOS after DOS was dying. They switched from ipx to ip after others made ip the standard. They made a poor attempt to develop a GUI for their server. They almost grudingly developed an alpha client for Vista, with the actual beta due out in March. This made it impossible for network admins to test Vista and remain connected to a Novell server. History does repeat itself. What happened to IBM with the pc market is the samething that happened to Novell with the NOS. I used to root for Novell, had a CNE, etc. But now the writing is on the wall. Most centers at my university have switched from Novell. I have one remaining Novell server at it's only a matter of time before I terminate it. As a side note, I'm still a fan of linux and love opensource, such as apache, mysql, perl, php, openoffice, firefox, etc. But I also have common sense to run Microsoft servers where needed.
