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Is Microsoft teaming up with rival Novell to offer support for Linux? Microsoft has in fact embraced Novell’s open-source software platform, forming a technological truce between two longtime antagonists who want to make it easier for the still-dominant Windows operating system and the increasingly popular Linux system to work together.



Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer with the CEO of Novell

"This builds a very important intellectual-property bridge between the open source and proprietary sides of software," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said shortly before the companies formally announced their alliance in San Francisco.
The alliance is primarily aimed at the growing number of major companies and government agencies that rely on elements of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft's Windows and Linux to run their computers.

"It all comes down to recognising there is a mixed environment out there," Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said during a press conference.

The partnership's impact on consumers appears to be inconsequential except for a commitment to improve the interaction between Microsoft's suite of Office software and a free alternative known as OpenOffice.

After news of the deal leaked, Novell's shares shot up 92 cents, or 15.7 percent, to close at USD 6.79 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where Microsoft's shares dipped four cents to finish at USD 28.77.

Under the partnership, Microsoft's sales team will offer its corporate customers a chance to license its Windows operating system as part of a package offering maintenance and support for Novell's Suse Linux platform.

Ballmer stressed that Microsoft will first try to convince corporate customers to use Windows exclusively before relenting to the notion of a hybrid system using Suse Linux.

"This is a big day for Microsoft customers," said Stuart Cohen, chief executive officer of the Open Source Development Labs, a Beaverton, Ore. group trying to expand corporate America's reliance on Linux. "They are being told by Microsoft that they can use Linux and not worry about it. That's a big statement."

"I have had a lot of conversations with (Ballmer), and I can assure you he wasn't usually smiling when we were talking about Linux," said Shane Robison, chief strategy and technology officer for Hewlett-Packard.

But Microsoft has been under increasing pressure to loosen up, and not just from customers who want to be able to run Linux with Windows.

Google is also giving away more Web-based software, including word processing and spreadsheet programs, and last year promised to work with Sun Microsystems to help distribute OpenOffice.

Last week, Redwood City-based Oracle, announced that it would support Red Hat's version of Linux and begin selling a Linux operating system largely composed of Red Hat code.