Business & Technology Nexus

I was at peace reflecting on Oracle’s chop-block of Red Hat… But then Microsoft and Novell had to go and spoil the mood by getting into bed together.

A lot of the commentary has compared the Novell deal as similar to Microsoft’s support of a failing and flailing Apple (boy does that seem like a long time ago!). But this sure seems different to me.

There’s nothing like a major announcement full of intent, press releases, and the vacuum of any real accomplishments to get your mind racing. Where could the partnership go? What is it’s true aim?

After all, why should Microsoft try and bolster the SUSE derivative? Conceivably, and predictably, Microsoft could share device compatibility information in a clever way and in so doing bolster SUSE in the US market. Doing so would undercut Red Hat (and by extension Oracle), as long as those pesky intellectual property barriers are properly erected.

Oh Linus, is this what victory looks like? After all, you’ve done it, you’ve gone w-a-y mainstream.

All that’s left is my modest suggestion for Microsoft. Replace the Windows kernel with Linux. There’s about a million different reasons why this is very, very unlikely (and they are all devices that need drivers). But what if it did? Couldn’t Microsoft claim to be more “open” than Apple. Couldn’t they ride the open source movement with their proprietary, monopolistic shell of a user interface?

But then again, when you are running as far ahead as Microsoft is, sometimes it’s better to go slow…