Novell has just made a little deal with SAP and it will probably serve it well. Unsuprisingly, the recent events may have helped its stock.

Novell Inc. is currently accelerating to the upside on a strong increase in volume and is taking out the highs of the day after trading in a range for the last hour. The stock is at an 11 month high trading up by 23 cents at $7.57.

Novell presented alongside Microsoft yesterday. They attended what was called the 'Mind Your Business' road show.

Among the technology companies presenting in Raleigh are: HP, Cisco, Sun, Microsoft, Novell, Citrix, VMWare and Altiris.

Does Novell benefit at everyone else's expense in the Linux world? Novell clearly expected this when it named its deal "selfish". Meanwhile, however, Red Hat does not suffer and its stock is unaffected. Some reporters and analysts still seem unable to grasp business models which revolve around support. This must be the effect of dealing with disruptive technologies.

See, it's not really a software company, in that its margins (should it mature) won't resemble what people are used to with companies like Microsoft and Oracle. That's because it doesn't sell software, it sells services on software.

All in all, the take-home message is that the Linux world is healthy and it is not afraid, even amid Microrosft's intimidation techniques. Novell did nothing to prevent this however. Nowadays, Novell and Microsoft seem like pals. Interpret this as you wish.

Update: surprise, surprise. SAP made a deal with Microsoft on the same day as Novell.