New balance of power

the_real_rs writes “Senior management at Microsoft has softened its stand on open-source software in general: The company no longer dismisses it as the invention of godless anarchists bent upon taking down the capitalist system. Instead, the toned-down message stresses the advantage of using a homegrown technology developed from the kernel on up.

That leaves room for an alternative camp to grow around Novell in the software landscape. Backed by Big Blue, which has its own selfish reasons for promoting the wider adoption of Linux, Novell receives $50 million–a 2 percent stake in the company–as part of the SuSE deal, as well as the support from the technology powerhouse.

Watching from the sidelines, corporate customers aren’t likely to rush back to Novell out of Linux fever alone. But unless Novell screws up again, the company will be entering an interesting new chapter. At the very least, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, Novell is cool again.”