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Sun Pondering Buying Novell

Posted by CowboyNeal on

Krafty Koder writes "ZDNet are reporting that Sun are considering purchasing Novell and thus gain SUSE Linux. 'With our balance sheet, we're considering all our options,' Sun chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz said in an interview on Sunday regarding the possibility of acquiring Novell. 'What would owning the operating system on which IBM is dependent be worth? History would suggest we look to Microsoft for comparisons,' he said."

5 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. Oh No.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Good-bye Mono.

  2. Missing part - Mono by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Umm.. Why nobody does not talk about Mono. Sun's biggest strenght is Java. And right now it is being under thread by Mono. So they wan't to buy Novell to get rid of Mono. If so, let's hope Mono community is as strong as Mozilla community.

  3. Sun and M$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wasn't too long ago I heard of some green handshake between two companies.

    (puts on tin foil hat)

    Will SuSE disappear like Corel Linux only to reappear as something new later on, or vanish completely?

    It seems like whenever a certain Linux distro becomes too "well known" something happens to it.

    I smell M$. Flame away, but this smells fishy.

  4. Wrong OS by overshoot · · Score: 5, Interesting
    SUNW doesn't mean SuSE -- they know that IBM uses Red Hat as well. SUNW means System V Unix and AIX.

    SUNW just woke up to the fact that their deals with SCOX didn't mean anything because Novell still owns all of the collateral, including the right to tell SCOX to stifle itself.

    If SUNW were to buy Novell, the thinking must go, they could reverse Novell's order telling SCOX to leave IBM alone. Instead, they could harass IBM over AIX, which is a direct competitor to SUNW's server offerings.

    SUNW still doesn't see Linux as a strategic threat. Don't be fooled into thinking that our interests are what drive them.

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
  5. Re:"Owning the operating system"? by chill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Except IBM could take all of the SuSE sources and make "IBM Linux" that was nothing more than a rebranded SuSE in a heartbeat. This is how Mandrake started -- as an enhanced Red Hat.

    IBM could get the major vendors like BEA, SAP, Oracle and the like to certify on "IBM Linux" pretty darn quick.

    Sun *still* doesn't get it.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.