Microsoft and Novell did,
Office Pro 2010 32bit, in fact,
Microsoft Office Home And Business 2010 Product Key, announce a collaborative partnership offer, as expected, on November two. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer emphasized throughout his remarks throughout the press conference announcing the deal that Novell and Microsoft have already been discussing the particulars for months. But there's no way anyone can tell me that this deal isn't all about Oracle. It's now a Microsoft-Novell vs. Oracle-Red Hat face-off. (Keep in mind, Red Hat is a hostile — yet smiling — participant in this contest.)Still doubtful? Buried in Microsoft's Novell-collaboration press release is this maintenance services nugget:"Microsoft will distribute coupons for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server maintenance and support,
Office 2010 Update Key, so that customers can benefit from the use of an interoperable version of Linux with patent coverage, as well as the collaborative work between the two companies."Update: I had a chance to ask about the Oracle elephant, following the press conference where Microsoft announced the Novell partnership. Bill Hilf,
Microsoft Office 2010 32bit, general manager of Microsoft's platform strategy (and Linux point-man), denied that the Oracle-Red Hat announcement had any bearing on Microsoft's partnership with Novell."We were on a path to get here all along," Hilf said. Microsoft wouldn't be agile enough to so quickly organize such a counter-event, Hilf joked.Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Novell Linux, conceded a bit more:The Red Hat-Oracle offer "might have acccelerated (our announcement with Microsoft) by a couple of days." But Novell had been talking with Microsoft since April 2006 about some type of partnership,
Office 2010 Pro 64 Bit, he emphasized.Me? I still think today's offer is still at least 99 percent about Oracle.