Microsoft Starts Handing Out SUSE Linux Subscriptions

Redmond is also trumpeting the fact that several of its existing enterprise customers -- such as Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse and AIG Technologies -- are among the first to take advantage of these certificates and the interoperability between Windows Server and SUSE Linux.

As part of the deal between the two firms, Microsoft said it would distribute 70,000 coupons a year for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, so that customers could benefit from the use of an interoperable version of Linux with patent coverage, as well as the collaborative work between the two companies.

Microsoft also said Dec. 20 that the primary reasons behind these customer moves were the benefits of interoperability, the patent cooperation agreement and the road map for bidirectional virtualization solutions.

Company officials were also quick to point out to me that Microsoft has not lost any software seats under these deals, while sources close to the company suggested the some of the SUSE subscriptions came at Red Hat's expense.

That is in line with the general gist of a research note released last week by Forrester Research, which said that of the two threats to Red Hat, Oracle and the Novell-Microsoft deal, the Novell-Microsoft deal offered customers the highest immediate value and constituted the larger threat to Red Hat's growth and future viability as the leading Linux distribution.

Forrester also said that, with Microsoft's help, SUSE Linux Enterprise will be a more effective competitor to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and that SLE is likely to be better than Red Hat for mixed shops.

"As a result of the interoperability work between Microsoft and Novell, SLE is likely to be the better option for Linux interoperability with Windows than Red Hat," Forrester said.

These latest Microsoft-Novell customer deals also come hot on the heels of the release of the results of a survey sponsored by the two vendors, which found that technology decision makers are very upbeat about the agreement to improve interoperability between Windows Server and SUSE Linux.

But some in the free and open-source community, like the Samba team, have openly expressed their unhappiness with the patent provision in the deal and asked Novell to undo it.

In a public letter to Novell, Samba -- which provides free software for systems running Linux and Unix with Windows-compatible file and print services -- said that it "disapproves strongly" of the actions taken by Novell.

Others, like open-source luminary Bruce Perens, have asked community members to sign an open letter to Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, which says the software patent agreement between Novell and Microsoft "betrays the rest of the free software community, including the very people who wrote Novell's own system, for Novell's sole financial benefit."

So far, more than 2,900 people have signed the letter.

Richard Stallman, the leader of the Free Software Foundation, also warned in a speech at the fifth international GPLv3 conference in Tokyo on Nov. 21 that the Novell-Microsoft deal was an example of how software patents could be used to threaten users.

"It turns out that perhaps it's a good thing that Microsoft did this now, because we discovered that the text we had written for GPL Version 3 would not have blocked this, but it's not too late and we're going to make sure that when GPL Version 3 really comes out it will block such deals," Stallman said.

But others, like Jason Perlow, a systems architect and open-source specialist with Unisys's 3D Visible Enterprise High Performance center, take a more measured approach to the deal. He told me that any cooperation between Microsoft and a Linux vendor is a positive thing, particularly from the perspective of a systems integrator.

"As long as the open-source community is not encumbered with any responsibility or admission of patent guilt or liability to Microsoft, this is a good scenario for the IT business community," he said.