Opinion: How much is that penguin in the Window?

Specifically, Microsoft has placed an open order for $100m worth of “support certificates” with Novell so its customers can get hand-holding with SuSE Linux implementations.

Obviously Micrsoft would prefer it if you just used Windows Server for everything but if you really insist on having some Linux they’d prefer it if you get your tame penguin off their new best friends in Utah.

Historically, Microsoft didn’t have many friends in Utah, having tricked Word Perfect into chasing the OS/2 rabbit down an endless burrow while working on Windows in the back room.

Novell and Microsoft weren’t chummy back then either as Windows NT slowly but surely ripped the revenue innards out of the previous network operating system leader NetWare.

You’ll still find this lean, mean and very stable offering lurking in the back of many server rooms, usually because everyone forgot it was there, since it makes so little fuss and needs so little care and feeding.

But once the network wars were over, Novell embraced first Unix then Linux and then Microsoft, as the latter realised that total unconditional surrender wouldn’t represent victory but rather a mountain of anti-monopoly lawsuits.

So instead we’ve watched Microsoft ploughing mountains of cash into Apple as well as Novell in the name of cross-platform connectivity, and hey, it beats writing even larger cheques to various aggrieved entities which prefer litigation to competition.

Does the strategy work? Do more Windows Server shops choose SuSE over other flavours of Linux? The whole point of Linux was supposed to be that it was available gratis, but if you do need some hand-holding, maybe it makes more sense to go with the offering from your major operating system supplier.

How far this goes is anyone’s guess. Will Microsoft one day offer its very own Linux distro?