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Red Hat reacts to Microsoft-Novell pact: 'Unthinkable'

03.11.2006
Following on the heels of its "Unfakeable Linux" rebuttal to last week's incursion by Oracle Corp. into its core Linux support business, Red Hat Inc. Friday called the new alliance between rivals Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. "unthinkable" -- but still spun it as a victory for all Linux vendors.

"The best technology has been acknowledged," the company said in a posted on Red Hat's Web site overnight. "It means Linux has won."

A long-time foe of open source, Microsoft that it would work with No. 2 Linux distributor Novell Inc. to make Windows interoperate with Suse Linux in the data center in areas such as virtualization and Web services. Microsoft will also help market Suse to its customers.

While both Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian said the two companies will continue to compete, they will aid each other with support to the increasing number of companies running mixed Windows-Linux environments.

The tie-up is widely perceived as the second blow to Red Hat in two weeks. that it would clone Red Hat's market-leading version of Linux in order to offer discounted support to enterprise customers.

In its statement, Red Hat decried Microsoft and Novell's technical alliance. "Openly defined standards create interoperability everyone can implement. That's the real solution. It doesn't require a deal between two companies."