Novell: It's an Interoperability Deal

that's our story, and we're sticking to it

After BetaNews posted their story regarding Microsoft's refusing to officially distance itself from Mr Ballmer's most recent veiled threats, Novell's Bruce Lowry was forced once again into the position of trying to spin the Microvell deal as something positive for the Free Software community.

Essentially, Novell is sticking with a combination of its previous apologies, including that Ballmer's statements may have been taken out of context, and that they will just have to agree to disagree over the significance of the deal. To Microsoft, it is an Intellectual Property deal, to Novell it is an Interoperability deal, and to the Free Software developers that create the products that Novell sells it is a Raw deal, I suppose.

When asked by BetaNews yesterday just what context Ballmer meant to frame that statement in, the company's responses seemed to support the context of a veiled threat.

That's not how Novell perceives the agreement. "This is not the first time that this issue has surfaced," Lowry's response began.

"The agreement with Microsoft has three components: technical cooperation around virtualization, web services management and document compatibility; business cooperation involving distribution of SUSE Linux Enterprise coupons by Microsoft (plus some joint marketing); and a patent cooperation agreement, whereby Novell makes a covenant not to sue Microsoft customers over patents and Microsoft makes a covenant not to sue Novell customers over patents."