Novell reveals details about their deal with Microsoft

Novell reveals details about their deal with Microsoft

Linux major Novell has now released more details on their recently signed deal with the software giant Microsoft which has become a major topic of controversies amongst the open source community.

Novell has now published redacted versions of the three agreements it signed with Microsoft in its annual 10K filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

This filing was delayed due to an internal stock options review at Novell which they completed on Wednesday earlier this week.

Novell’s agreement with Microsoft would see the software giant spending hundreds of millions of dollars on licensing fees and sales and marketing costs over five years.

This would also include US$240 million for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates. In return, Novell would be paying Microsoft a percentage of revenue from open-source products.

This deal become even more relevant for other Linux major players in the market after Microsoft recently claimed that the open source operating system violated more than 200 of their patents.

Open-source advocate Bruce Perens spoke about Novell’s decision to signed a deal with Microsoft: “Novell had a choice here, and Novell’s choice was to be in the same boat with the rest of the free software community, or not.”

Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry had this to say about this revelation: “We’ve already provided the high-level comments when we announced the deal in November– around making Linux and Windows work better together, the areas of tech cooperation, the covenants not to sue. All the customer-focus stuff that drove the deal. The agreements provide more meat on the bones in support of those objectives.”

Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Novell’s Linux and Open Platform Solutions added: “Microsoft was Novell’s number one channel partner in the first quarter of 2007. We’ve seen 60 percent (first-quarter) growth in SUSE, year over year.”