Should open source developers feel uneasy about the
recent deal struck by Microsoft and Novell to make their operating
systems work with each other?
At the beginning of November, Microsoft and Novell signed a
groundbreaking agreement to work together to make their respective
operating systems and products more compatible with each other.
The long-term deal also brings the open source and proprietary
software communities together in what has proved to be an explosive
union, with free and open source software developers criticising
Novell for getting into Microsoft's proprietary bed.
Bill Hilf, Microsoft general manager of platform strategy and
head of the firm's Linux labs, and Roger Levy, Novell's
vice-president for open platform solutions, spoke to Computer
Weekly about how the alliance will benefit users.
Microsoft's learning process
Hilf joined Microsoft three years ago with the aim of giving the
company a mature and strong voice in the open source community and
to define where it would compete and where it could
collaborate.
The culmination of his work has been deals with Novell, the PHP
community, Zend, Xen Source, JBoss and Open Source Labs. Hilf
admitted that some open source concepts had been difficult to
digest.
"The free software open source philosophers have been the most
difficult, mainly because of the personalities, but that is a
decreasing audience. I have seen in more than 13 years of working
in open source that the free software audience is becoming
smaller," he said.
"We frequently have an economic conversation. Microsoft is a
commercial business, and we have found commercial
opportunities."
A year ago Hilf opened Microsoft's open source lab - a couple of
hundred servers plus a range of PCs, collectively running more than
40 different Linux distributions and many different versions of
Unix.
According to Hilf, the lab is now one of the most mixed
environments around, with hundreds of desktops and servers, kiosks
and handhelds.
Hilf has attracted high-profile open source experts to his team,
with key Unix, Linux and Java developers working together.
Agreements like the one with Novell made it all worthwhile, said
Hilf. "Fundamentally, it has been a long process and it is a rather
complex deal," he said, but the resulting collaboration,
particularly over intellectual property, will protect users from
being sued by Microsoft or Novell for patent violations.
But it is the intellectual property issue that has the open
source community up in arms. Opponents of the deal accuse Novell of
betraying the free and open source model by scurrying under the
Microsoft intellectual property umbrella.
And, they say, by helping Microsoft to make Windows work better
with SuSE Linux, Novell could open the door to Microsoft one day
selling its own Linux compatibility software - something that Hilf
refused to rule out.
As for contributing open source code to the community, Hilf was
quick to point out that Microsoft had given away the entire Windows
CE 6 kernel as open source.
But he added that the General Public Licence favoured by many
open source organisations, including Novell, was "the most
restrictive licence for a developer and not something we are
interested in".
"What we want is BSD-style licensing, which gives developers
choice and allows their code to develop and not have to be the same
for eternity."
Hilf said working with open source developers was a "two-way
learning process" for Microsoft. "There is a feeling in the press
that Microsoft needs to learn about community, but the open source
people also need to learn from Microsoft. As we build these
bridges, and have them work with us, that is a very healthy thing.
There has to be two-way feedback."
Novell stays open source
Like Hilf, Novell's Levy believes there are many benefits for
users in interoperable Microsoft and Novell products. But he was
keen to stress that Novell had not cut its ties with the open
source community.
"The technology industry has a long history of companies
competing in one sphere and co-operating in another," Levy said.
"There is no question that we will continue to compete with
Microsoft in areas such as servers, desktops, systems management
and identity management. We certainly believe - and will tell our
customers - that Linux is better than Windows for most of their
workloads. But the bottom line is that customers will have
both.
"We cannot control how people will react to this agreement. We
have been clear on what our motivations have been: improving
interoperability, improving the management of heterogeneous and
virtualised environments, promoting document compatibility. "
Levy said Novell's long-term strategy was to make Linux and open
source dominant in the industry. "The impact of this agreement will
be more significant for Windows users, who will now find it much
easier to deploy Linux in their environments. But it also opens up
new options for Novell customers who have SuSE Linux Enterprise. It
will promote the use of Linux."
Levy said Novell users would run Linux both on the edge for web
servers, and in their datacentres to support core business
applications. "Linux is better suited for datacentre deployments
than Windows due to its scalability, security, reliability and
other characteristics."
He stressed Novell's commitment to open source. "This agreement
does not change the way we develop software, either for our
proprietary products or our open source products. We have rigorous
processes in place to ensure the intellectual property in our
products is treated properly. That will not change. There is
absolutely nothing in this agreement that will push us toward
incorporating patented Microsoft technology into SuSE Linux
Enterprise.
"Keep in mind that we did not sign any cross-licensing deal with
Microsoft. We simply provided mutual covenants not to use our
patents against each other's customers.
"Microsoft cannot innovate as fast as the open source community.
Open source is the new innovation paradigm. We do not fear being
out-innovated by Microsoft."
Asked whether he thought Microsoft would one day build its own
Linux compatibility software with superior Windows
interoperability, Levy said, "The basic answer is, sure. They have
said, 'OK, Linux is here and we admit it, so we will work with a
Linux supplier to make virtualisation of Linux on Windows and
Window on Linux easier.'
"Microsoft hopes to drive all those customers to virtualise
Linux on Windows. We will work to encourage users to use Linux as
their foundation. Neither company is being altruistic here - it is
fierce competition. But the customer will not be made to suffer for
it."
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