July was a Microsoft-filled month, and that trend continued right up until the very end. Case in point? Hard on the heels of Redmond's little birthday present to Linux a few weeks ago, the Windows behemoth and SUSE announced last week that they are renewing the years-long patent deal originally signed by Novell but due to expire next year.
Published at LXer:
If you recall, Novell's former best friend for SUSE Linux was Microsoft. Microsoft and Novell have a partnership where the two parties had certificates that indemnified SUSE users from any intellectual property liability. In addition, Microsoft officially recommended SUSE Linux Enterprise for hybrid Windows/Linux shops.
Novell has agreed to be acquired by Attachmate Corp., a 30-year old IT host connectivity and systems management integration firm, while also agreeing to sell $450 million in IT assets to a consortium led by Microsoft. The $2.2 billion deal brings Attachmate Novell's enterprise-focused SUSE Linux distribution, which it will spin into a separate business unit....
Attachmate named Nils Brauckmann president of its new SUSE business unit -- and also affirmed its commitment to SUSE Linux, the OpenSUSE project, SUSE Studio, and SUSE Manager. Aside from shedding the Mono project, all SUSE projects will be continued, and there are no plans to change packing or pricing, says the company....
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) recently became the world’s first $1 billion open source company. Now, the folks at SUSE, promoter of the rival Linux distribution, are seeking bragging rights of their own. Indeed, SUSE says it now has more than 9,200 certified third-party applications and supports over 13,500 hardware, storage and networking devices. Impressive.
Published at LXer:
Seattle-based Attachmate Corp. is buying Novell for $2.2 billion, the companies announced on November 22.
After completing its acquisition of Novell, Attachmate has laid off hundreds of U.S.-based employees -- including members of Novell's Mono project -- and re-established Nuremberg, Germany as the headquarters for the SUSE business unit, say an industry report. Meanwhile, a U.S. appeals court reversed a summary judgment that could revive Novell/Attachmate's anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft....
Those of us who have been around the block a few times here in the Linux blogosphere have seen it many times before: With one hand, Microsoft holds out a small olive branch to the Linux community, while with the other it prepares a new patent attack, posts a "cautionary" FUD-filled video, or perpetrates some other kind of anti-FOSS mischief.
Published at LXer:
When Novell first announced that it was being acquired by Attachmate for $2.2 billion, the question of who would retain ownership over Unix copyrights was an open issue. As part of the Novell sale, the company also revealed that it is selling 882 patents to a Microsoft-led technology consortium for $450 million.
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