A couple of days ago, a rather important blog item was mentioned. Steve Ballmer has yet again issued an implicit threat. His fear-spreading endeavour was riding atop Novell's deal, which served as convenient precedence. This confirmed what many of us knew too well. The deal is -- at least to Microsoft -- about patents, not about interoperability. In fact, have a look at this new article:

Under terms of the agreement [Novell/Microsoft roadmap], enterprises will be able to host SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from as a virtualized guest on an upcoming service pack of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1.

This really isn't news, as Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 has supported Linux guest operating systems since its release.

Additionally, check out these lies from Steve Ballmer:

Ballmer pointed to open source as one potential source of worry. While the company has gained market share against Linux both on desktops and in the server market...

If Steve Ballmer is not delusional, then he is clearly spreading FUD. Even Bill Gates did this recently. Since journalists are involved, rather than court hearings under oath, this is not illegal. Microsoft continues to bend real facts and exploit loopholes in American law (not just the Gnu Public Licence).

Remember this: Novell's deal is about elevating 'intellectual property' nonesense. It's a case of painting predatory actions with the brush of interoperability.