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Microsoft, Dell, Novell in Linux server deal
May 06, 2007

The rumor was that Novell and Dell were going to partner up to deliver SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop). While nothing has come of that rumor -- yet -- Linux-Watch has learned from sources close to the companies involved that Novell, Dell, and Microsoft will be joining together in what seems to be an expansion of last November's Microsoft/Novell partnership.

According to sources, Dell will be selling SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) certificates, which it will obtain from Microsoft. As part of the Novell/Microsoft deal, Microsoft received 75,000 SLES licenses. Some of Microsoft's SLES licenses have already been passed on to customers such as Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse, and AIG Technologies.

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As part of the deal, Dell will be jointly marketing SLES to its customers with Novell. It would seem, from what our sources tell us, that Dell will be strongly encouraging its customers to use SLES instead of Red Hat RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). In the past, Dell has sold both Linux server operating systems.

The three companies will also work together to increase the compatibility between Windows Server and SLES. Microsoft and Novell are already working on virtualization, network management, document interoperability, and AD (Active Directory and eDirectory interoperability.

Dell recently became the first major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) to announce that it would be selling pre-installed Linux, Ubuntu, on consumer PCs and laptops.

Linux-Watch was unable to find out if Dell has entered into any patent agreement with Novell or Microsoft as part of this new server operating system partnership. The patent aspect of the Novell/Microsoft agreement has led to a great deal of criticism both from Novell employees and the open source community.

It is believed that the new partnership will be announced sometime in the week of May 7.


-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols



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