"We focused on customer worries like interoperability, which is where we put the bulk of our focus [and] from a deliverables perspective we feel good about it. So far Microsoft has lived up to its half of the bargain."

On the touchy subject of the IP covenant between the two, Hovsepian is confident the "balance of payments on IP" resulted in a net payment to Novell, not the other way around.

"I was involved in four deals we lost to Windows in terms of IP overhang," he said. "These were Fortune 500 companies that didn't move forward with Linux. The big battle for us is to win battles against Microsoft, but at the end of the day there is a poor customer that needs to run a shop."

To that end, Novell believes it has absolved a key stumbling block for the adoption of Linux in the enterprise - customer "uncertainty" over IP violations.

As to why would Microsoft do this, Hovsepian believes the company needed to demonstrate goodwill in front of customers and show it is doing things to help customers.