Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell and Microsoft as Virtualisation Partners, Collecting/Colocating Assets and Companies

Novell and Microsoft working together: where not?

The title, as seen above, might be a case of stating the obvious (with a snag), but it's important enough to show and to explain this, so as to leave no doubt about Novell's risk to virtualisation's status quo. A lot of today's clouds, which thrive in Virtualisation, are built using VMWare and GNU/Linux. Red Hat is an important ingredient in this and deployments typically involve giants like IBM, Amazon and maybe even Google. Needless to say, Microsoft is not happy about it.



“Novell and Citrix are both virtually controlled by Microsoft's will.”There are newer market entrants such as KVM and even Xen. Allow Novell and Microsoft to introduce them to an exclusive club -- a club where companies get acquired for their technologies and then integrated to increase pressure on common 'enemies' like Red Hat and VMWare.

We now have Novell and its very recent acquisitions that cover virtualisation. Then there's Citrix that acquired XenSource and Microsoft, whose virtualisation technology is more of an import (acquisition) than an in-house development project. Novell and Citrix are both virtually controlled by Microsoft's will. Most observers would ignore the connection. All of these seemingly separate efforts, however, are being combined and then directed at common rivals that pose a risk to the Microsoft ecosystem, of which Novell and Citrix are an integral part.

The Microsoft Virtualisation Gang



As we stated very recently, Xen was becoming a bit like the "the Novell of hypervisors", especially after it had sold out to Microsoft's partner Citrix and soon thereafter focused on Windows instead of GNU/Linux. The deal they signed with Microsoft had had some impact before that. The evidence is all over the place, though some choose not to see it.

In the news you now find that a recent Novell acquisition, PlateSpin, sponsors a virtualisation conference. This is fine. Watch this new press release though:

PlateSpin Pledges Extended Support for Citrix XenServer Customers



PlateSpin ULC, a Novell company, today reaffirmed its commitment to support Citrix* XenServer across the PlateSpin product line. XenServer support is a key element of PlateSpin's multiplatform strategy, which aims to offer enterprises a unified suite of solutions for managing heterogeneous data center environments and making physical and virtual infrastructures work as one.


Increasingly, you are likely find collaborations that can be characterised as Novell + Citrix + XenSource + Microsoft (Hyper-V) + PlateSpin, all pitted against VMWare, Red Hat, Ubuntu (KVM), Sun (xVM, VirtualBox), Oracle and server other server virtualisation forces. In a way, Microsoft may be building itself a 'coalition'. It has ignored hypervisors for far too long, so it hopes that scale of combined forces can help it catch up. Remember that Microsoft admitted very clearly a few weeks ago that clouds and services may be the way to go.

"If You're Not With Us, We Won't Play"



Novell loves Microsoft [1, 2]. Microsoft 'punishes' some of SUSE's GNU/Linux rivals. Here we come to revisiting an old problem again. It comes from the news [1,2,3]. (mind our added highlights in red)

Microsoft, using Hyper-V, discriminates against Red Hat et al and requires software patent deals to be signed merely to be no longer disregarded. It's a form of extortion that's used against some of the biggest players in the market. Remember that Microsoft may be planning to invite the antitrust envelope because there's too much to lose without an anti-competitive last resort.

In the links below, Microsoft is still promising what many call an inferior product. it plans pre-bundling as its business (integration) plan. Expect antitrust and dirty tricks.

___ [1] Microsoft Says Hyper-V RC 1 Good to Go

But already there are holes in this proclamation: Hyper-V RC 1 doesn't work with Microsoft's own virtual machine (VM) management software, and the only other guest operating systems it supports in addition to Microsoft's are Novell SUSE Linux, which partners with Microsoft.


[2] Microsoft releases Hyper-V RC1

Hyper-V supports a number of guest operating systems: Windows Server 2003 SP2, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1, Windows Vista SP1 (x86), and Windows XP SP3 (x86).


[3] Microsoft Moves Closer To Hyper-V Rollout

Microsoft Tuesday unveiled the second release candidate for its long awaited Hyper-V hypervisor, which adds minor tweaks like guest operating system support for Windows 2000 Server and mouse integration tools for Novell SUSE 10 Linux.


Microsoft Novell
Novell (to EU): Microsoft supports Linux.
Microsoft: Yeah, like Novell said, we support Linux. The 'legal' ones.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
Software is a lot like those things
Sloppy Reporting About Slop, or How The Register MS Lowers Its Standards
Maybe the management isn't even aware of this
IBM's Strategy: Cull 'Expensive' Workers, Replace Them With Cheaper Ones
So far we saw not even one rebuttal or challenge to the claim of Red Hat layoffs scheduled for tomorrow
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 10, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 10, 2025
Gemini Links 11/08/2025: Tea Caffeine Hot and Super ZZ Zero
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Other Serial Sloppers
Maybe Microsoft wants to dub this "Web5"
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Residents Management Company, Automation, and Politics
Links for the day
Links 10/08/2025: AOL Ending Dial-up
Links for the day
Links 10/08/2025: Webrings, “AI Sunglasses” and “AI Eyeglasses”, US Administration Intensifies Attacks on Science and Research
Links for the day
Sometimes Newer is Worse
We generally need to reject this dumb notion that "old" means bad
The Code Used to Make Techrights Fits on a Seventh of a Floppy Disk (or 100KB When Compressed)
For the sake of comparison I've just downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The ZIP file is 27.2MB in size, or ~27,200KB.
What They Tell Young Programmers
Coding in 2025
Simpler is Better When Simple is Enough
Over-complicating things to "sell" new versions is so 1990s
Links 10/08/2025: From Social Control Media to Prison, New Examples of Windows TCO
Links for the day
If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody
at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status
The Man Who Helped Microsoft Kill Linux is Trying to Delay Our Lawsuits Against Him
By conservative estimates, and based on court documents submitted by them, they're prepared to spend over a million dollars on lawyers, fighting against me and my wife
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Gen Con 2025 and Framework Laptop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 09, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 09, 2025
The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?
What a slopfest!
Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
It was always a dumb idea to play along with Microsoft's hardware mischief
Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
Microsoft has a big problem in its hands
The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
Microsoft is, to put it bluntly, pure evil
The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
it will never work with Microsoft
Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
SEO spam, made with LLMs
Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
paid to promote slop
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
Links for the day
After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
we expect OEMs will just listen to users
The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
Call out the culprits
Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day