As confirmed recently by Justin Steinman of Novell, his company gets access to Microsoft intellectual property, which it needed to pay for. Let us remember that Novell works in collaboration with the Free software community. Its hand touches many projects to which it contributes.

Can Novell Lead to Tainted Code?

In a conversation I recently had with Mark Kent, the following concern was raised:

...there is now a huge risk that Novell's programmers will inadvertently drop Microsoft code into open-source projects, as they are now looking at Microsoft's code whilst writing open-source code. Is it time to ask contributors to open-source projects to sign a document indicating that they are clean of tainting by closed-source code?

Recall those bogus code plagiarism claims, which were made by SCO. IBM was a victim because it also worked on UNIX. Visibility leads to suspicion.

Can IBM, which uses Linux extensively, trust a company that now has access to Microsoft code (or IP)? It may be hard to answer that question, but IBM seems to favour Red Hat in the datacenter, assuming that recent announcements should serve as indicators.

Does IBM Leave Novell Out in the Cold?

The prospects of an IBM acquisition were recently discussed, but it seems like IBM is gradually losing faith in Novell. It sidles with Red Hat.

So Novell - which got into Linux on IBM's nickel - has wandered off the reservation and is now hugging Microsoft, IBM's heredity enemy, around the knees seeking market redemption.

[...]

So now IBM, which brought Novell into the mix so Red Hat wouldn't turn into another Microsoft, has cut a deal with Red Hat "to encourage the dramatic growth of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM System z mainframes" - according to the lead sentence in the Wednesday press release.

Makes one think the Armonk carrier pigeon just pooped on Novell's new hat.

That hat won't happen to red, will it? Another thing for Novell to be envious about.