This article in Australian IT, write s about comments made by Steve Ballmer regarding the Novell /Microsoft Deal that got so much attention.  Micrsoft stated that they are happy to do a similar deal witha ny Linux distributor.

My question though is : What good will this do to Microsoft? As far as I can tell Novel received more money in the deal. Waht is the real ultimate motive behind this?

My best guess would be that in the long term we will see Microsoft porting SOME applications to Linux but they can only be installed legally on certain versions (the ones that have a deal with Microsoft). Which in turn locks people in again. If not, what could be their motive? From my years in the IT world, I am PRETTY sure that they do not do this ” out of the kindness of their heart”.  But this is not the only small thing that pops up, since when is MSN messenger supporting anything else then MSN contacts? according to this, now it supports Yahoo! people as well.

Of course on the other side this can be not all THAT bad, ther might be SOME benefit coming out of this (I doubt it but you never know), like better Windows and Windows Service integration.
But to me this is rather suspicious all around since they have NEVER been this open and embracing towards other companies. Like my colleague and friend said: When did Microsoft realize that other IT companies exist?

//Flosse

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