Novell & Microsoft

November 3, 2006 by Keith Kastorff.

Microsoft’s traditional “embrace and absorb” strategy was always coming to Linux. It was just a matter of time. They wait until a competitive product/company achieves a certain viability (not sure what they use to determine that, but it doesn’t really matter), and then they embrace it in terms of compatibility, followed by acquisitions and Microsoft products that leverage that compatibility in their favor. People like to hate Microsoft for a million reasons, some factually sound, and some completely bullshit, but Microsoft’s strategy for dealing with competition has always been the same, and it works exceptionally well for them. They didn’t achieve “monopoly” status by sucking at the game.

Novell has joined the dance. They think they can beat Redmond at their own game. I’m gonna see if they can. History says they have a tough task, as MS is really good at this. But if we always made our future decisions based on the past, nothing would ever change. I applaud Novell for stepping up. Most everyone else has had their head in the sand, pretending there were only two choices, closed source or open source. The real world was always going to insist they coexist, on the same OS, network, or environment. Open Source only is a great ideology, but it won’t fly. Closed Source only is commercially attractive to businesses, but it won’t fly either…Linux has changed that forever. Reality forces upon us the only choice that does fly…coexistence. This is the real test of Open Source; not could it stand independent and aloof and succeed in the way it wanted to?…it never could. But can it coexist ideologically and legally with Closed Source?

The way the test is evolving came as a complete surprise to most of us, me included. But that the true test of Open Source is upon us…didn’t surprise me one bit.

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