Novell and Microsoft Claim Customer Support

munchola writes "Novell and Microsoft have commissioned a survey to prove that customers love their interoperability and patent deal. According to the survey 'Ninety-five percent approve of the collaboration between Novell and Microsoft,' while 'four out of five believe their organization would consider doing more business with Linux dealers if Linux providers establish an alliance with Microsoft.' As CBRonline notes, however: 'Few people have claimed the deal is bad for Novell or Microsoft's customers. The question has been whether it is good for the open source movement, open source developers, or indeed Novell itself. Those issues do not appear to have been addressed by the survey.'"

Comments

Just one survey?

[faloi]

Or did they commision multiple surveys with different wording and cherry-pick the one they liked most? It is marketing, after all.

Re:Just one survey?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be absurd. Marketing types know how to write surveys that give them the results they want. There are courses on this.

Re:Marketing auto-fellatio?

[urbanradar]

The people on Slashdot and other such forums and Novell's paying customers are mostly not the same people.

MS and Novell Can Do Whatever They Want!

[codepunk]

Neither MS or Novell control our software, only we control our software. It is a hard lesson that many companies need to learn, they are not in control the developers are ultimately in control. The minute you alienate the developers in this type of environment you have already set up your ultimate demise.

Re:Marketing auto-fellatio?

[Macthorpe]

Not to spit on the results of your own personal survey here (actually, it really is), but could that possibly be because 'me and my Linux pals' aren't exactly a representative sample of the computing community?

The Actual Survey

[ifchairscouldtalk]

Do you think that the recent interoperability and patent deal between Microsoft and Novel is

A) Good
B) Very Good
C) Not bad at all

As predictable as snow in winter

[netbuzz]

Customers *always* like to hear that their vendors are playing nice-nice together; the details matter little -- at least in the short run. ... Or maybe it's just that Microsoft and Novell have wowed 'em with these cool billboards that are beckoning drivers in the Bay Area and Massachusetts:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/9636

Did I miss Casual Friday ?

[Joebert]

How can a survey like this go unnoticed by the Slashdot audience untill after it's been conducted ?
Did anyone here actually participate in this survey ?

Patent infringement

[kernelpanicked]

Careful Novell. I'm almost positive Microsoft has patents that cover these sorts of bullshit surveys.

Question number one.

[AltGrendel]

Do you love more; being hit in the head by a large wooden mallet, or using the new Microsoft/Novell hotline?

But isn't that the same thing?

JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION DAMN IT!

PSB

[phoric]

From the article: "PSB is a strategic communications firm that specializes in research-based recommendations for its clients. PSB has conducted research studies for Microsoft over the past 8 years." Wow, a POSITIVE survey that was commissioned by Microsoft, to the customers of Microsoft, by a company who regularly does commissioned reports for Microsoft. Who woulda thought?

They can commission all the surveys they want

[strike6]

I've been an ardent Novell supporter for 15 years and am a certified CNE on NW 4.x and 5.x. They've been messed up at marketing for a long time but always made great technology. Now I feel they've abandoned the tech community, after finally finding a path that might lead to their long term existence after Netware. I'll never again support or recommend Novell products to anyone, no matter what their clearly biased surveys say.

But some of us are.

[khasim]

I'm running NetWare 6.5, GroupWise 7.01 and ZENworks 6.0 and I am not happy with this "deal".

Nor will I ever recommend Novell products until Novell changes their attitude.

Microsoft Novell Survey

[Eric Damron]

Would you rather:
A) More companies enter into a similar patent agreement with Microsoft.
B) Have a hot poker shoved up your ass.

Would you use Linux more if:
A) More companies paid Microsoft to prevent Microsoft from bringing a harassment law suit against users.
B) Had a hot poker shoved up your ass.

Would you feel more confortable:
A) Doing business with companies who have partnered with Microsoft
B) Having a hot poker shoved up your ass. ...

Re:Marketing auto-fellatio?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want to use linux. I don't want to use OSX. I don't care if they are better.

I want and like to use XP.
You are truly Microsoft's ideal customer.

this whole deal is pure bullshit

[Alien Being]

If MS really cared about interoperability, they would not have been playing dirty tricks with APIs, protocols and file formats for the last twenty years. MS wants no part of Open Systems. Their talk about intellectual property rights is just a veiled threat, "buy from us or we'll pay some SCO-like operation to sue you."

The question that was missing from that survey is "do you trust Microsoft to keep their promises and not attempt to lock you into proprietary products?"

How do you know they "protect" me?

[khasim]

So Novell enter an agreement that protects you from being sued by Microsoft, and as a result you'd recommend not using their products in future? What's your business case for that?

Since the actual wording of their agreement is still a secret, how do you know that they're providing any "protection" at all?

Since they've both stated that this agreement will expire in 5 years, why would I want to risk their products 6 years from now? Migrations are expensive.

When was the last time an end-user (not a distributor/vendor) was sued for patent infringement?

Statistically, if an end-user is being sued by Microsoft, that end-user already has a license agreement with Microsoft.

Microsoft does that all the time. Many of those stories are posted on /. (particularly the ones about schools being sued).

One of the PRIMARY advantages of Open Source for the end-user is the absence of license requirements. I have to spend time/effort/money making sure that the copies of MS-Office we use are licensed and that I have proof of those licenses. And that proof is acceptable to Microsoft should they ever audit us.

Yet I can deploy Linux without any CAL's or anything. And OpenOffice.org without any per seat requirements. And so on.

So, the "business case" is savings TODAY versus a nebulous threat that has never been exercised against any end-user in the past ... combined with the very real and previously documented threat of license audits and lawsuits.

GPL v3 and this "deal"

[lawaetf1]

It strikes me as a little unusual that nobody is making a bigger deal out of GPLv3 and how it will essentially nullify this deal or at the least put Novell in a very awkward situation. Even if Linus doesn't move the kernel over to v3, you can bet that glibc, gcc, etc, are all going to go that way. Try shipping a distro without either of those two.

Obviously Msft and Novl are more than aware of the licensing change so the question is what sort of insidious deal has msft given Novl in the back room? Truth is, if Novell ships GPLv3 software in SuSe then they stand to be liable for enormous damages, injunctions, etc. The patent indemnification nonsense they got from msft will be more than overshadowed by the ruckus created when Novell ignores the license that a significant section of code it ships is released under. Nothing would make msft happier than another round of FUD about Linux but what gain to Novell? cui bono for this upcoming crime? When asked about GPLv3 the Novl CEO said something casually dismissive like "oh, that license, it's still in development."

Something far more sinister is afoot than just Novl opting to be msft's lap dog.