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Microsoft and Novell want us to know that everything is going swell with the interoperability collaboration deal they announced two years ago. So swell, in fact, that Microsoft is kicking in an additional US $100 million:
Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. are announcing an incremental investment in their relationship to meet accelerating customer demand for their business model solution, which is designed to build a bridge between open source and proprietary software to deliver interoperability and intellectual property (IP) peace of mind for organizations operating mixed-source IT environments.
The investment focuses on enhanced programs from Novell to provide tools, support, training and resources for customers seeking an enterprise-class Linux* platform and specifically, the optimal interoperability solution between Microsoft Windows Server and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell®. It also includes Microsoft’s commitment to purchase up to $100 million in certificates that those customers can redeem for expanded support from Novell that includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support and support for moving toward an enterprise-class Linux platform. The investments will take effect Nov. 1, 2008, and between now and then Microsoft and Novell will solicit customer input and identify aspects of the support programs that will be most useful to organizations running mixed-source environments.
Customer response to the Microsoft-Novell model has been significant since it began in November 2006. As part of the initial five-year partnership agreement, Microsoft purchased $240 million of Novell certificates to sell to customers. Within 18 months, Novell invoiced more than $157 million in certificate revenues, or 65 percent of the original allotment. Customers who have already taken advantage of this opportunity to seamlessly run both Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., HSBC Holdings, Renault, Southwest Airlines Co., BMW and many other leading companies around the world.
Joe Wilcox delivers an astringent assessment and observes:
For a company with net revenues of $232 million during its fiscal 2008 second quarter and profit from operations of $2 million, Microsoft’s 100 million bucks should be useful.
I’ll say!
The deal allows Novell to exist in the shadow of Windows Server, sustaining on its table scraps. Microsoft can offer customers that simply must have some Linux servers a sanctioned source for good tools ensuring interoperability with Windows Server.
Of course, the real objection to the original deal by Open Source fans was the "patent cooperation" part of the agreement which Microsoft felt bolstered their assertion that Linux infringed on their intellectual property despite Novell’s statements to the contrary. It looks like the lovebirds have gotten over that honeymoon spat now and I’m sure we can look forward to more subsidies for Novell in the future.
Ryan Paul at Ars Technica reports a shocker – Microsoft has signed up as a $100,000 per year sponsor of the Apache Foundation which produces their number one Web server competitor.
Today at the OSCON open source software convention, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) got an unexpected new sponsor: Microsoft. The Redmond software giant, which will contribute $100,000 annually to the ASF, joins Google and Yahoo as a platinum sponsor of Apache development.
The ASF is a nonprofit group that exerts loose organizational guidance role over a sprawling ecosystem of autonomously managed software projects, including the Apache web server and a host of libraries, frameworks, toolkits, and programs. The culture of the ASF is built upon what they call the "Apache Way," a philosophy of consensus-based collaborative stewardship and volunteerism.
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I spoke with Apache Software Foundation (ASF) president Justin Erenkrantz, who views Microsoft’s sponsorship of Apache as a step forward for interoperability. He believes that this move is based on a legitimate desire by Microsoft to foster collaborative development of Apache technologies that implement Microsoft standards. In particular, he points out an ASF project called Apache POI which offers native Java libraries for reading and writing Microsoft Office file formats.
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Erenkrantz told me that Microsoft has been moving in this direction for quite some time. The company recently invited several Apache contributors to visit its Redmond headquarters for informal interoperability talks. Microsoft’s recognition of the role that open source software will play in enterprise infrastructure comes directly from the top, he says, and isn’t just confined to rogue elements within the company.
Microsoft’s Sam Ramji offers this elaboration:
It’s critical to understand two things about our sponsorship of the ASF: what it is, and what it is not.
It is not a move away from IIS as Microsoft’s strategic web server technology. We have invested significantly in refactoring and adding new, state-of-the-art features to IIS, including support for PHP. We will continue to invest in IIS for the long term and are currently under way with development of IIS 8.
It is a strong endorsement of The Apache Way, and opens a new chapter in our relationship with the ASF. We have worked with Apache POI, Apache Axis2, Jakarta, and other projects in the last year, and we will continue our technical support and interoperability testing work for this open source software.
I’m sure there will still be a certain amount of suspicion of Microsoft’s motives but customer demand for interoperability makes strange bedfellows and the lack thereof in Microsoft server products is always a prime competitor talking point.
In April, Microsoft gave Windows XP Home a reprieve on low-cost mobile computers until at least June 30, 2010 and today they extended it to low cost desktops:
Today at Computex, Microsoft Corp. announced that following the success of Windows on netbooks, the Windows offering is being extended to include nettop devices. Netbooks are commonly referred to as ultralow-cost PCs (ULCPCs) and were originally intended for students and other first-time PC customers in emerging markets. Nettop refers to desktops that are ultralow-cost.
I guess some head shaping for the PR staff went on after the April announcement which prominently mentioned Windows XP Home. Today’s announcement confusingly mentions only generic Windows except for one partner quote. So what’s the reason for the enlarged reprieve?
Customers are asking for Windows on these devices because the experience is familiar to existing PC users and easy to learn for customers who are new to computing. Customers want to be able to take advantage of the wide range of applications, devices and online experiences supported by Windows today. Microsoft partners also appreciate Windows-based solutions for these computers because they already know how to build and support high-quality systems that are powered by Windows.
And they can’t do any of those things with Vista apparently, presumably because of its considerable heft, and don’t want Linux sneaking in. One would also guess that the definition of ultralow-cost PC is subject to some negotiation.
So, here’s what the end of life plan for Windows XP currently looks like based on today’s announcement and the Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief, the Royalty OEM Reference Sheet, and the License Availability Roadmap:
- No XP retail availability after June 30, 2008
- No XP OEM (large PC manufacturer) availability after June 30, 2008 except:
- No XP volume purchase licenses after June 30, 2008, but volume purchasers and System Assurance subscribers can always downgrade to XP as long they have the appropriate media.
- No System Builder (smaller PC assemblers) XP availability after January 31, 2009.
It’s a long story and a complicated arrangement, but the developers of the open-source Samba file-sharing (aka work group server) software finally have access to the Microsoft protocol information promised in both the US and EU antitrust settlements. In a nut shell:
