hebig.org/blog
Personal webnode of Haiko Hebig

CNet: "Longtime Microsoft foe Novell has signed an agreement to acquire SuSE Linux for $210 million in cash, while IBM, the most powerful backer of the Linux OS, will make a $50 million investment in Novell. The moves, announced Tuesday, could boost the fortunes of SuSE, the No. 2 seller of Linux, increase the competitive pressure on No. 1 Red Hat, and provide a new direction for Novell's rivalry with Microsoft. The three-way action also highlights where much of the power in the Linux realm resides. 'IBM was a very important broker in the deal. It's prepared to be the kingmaker to counterbalance SuSE against Red Hat,' said RedMonk analyst James Governor."

The move takes place eight months after Novell decided to adopt Linux as the NetWare migration path, exactly four month after Novell announced to acquire Ximian, and just one day after RedHat announced to discontinue RedHat Linux: there will be no new releases and maintenance for RedHat 9.0 will end in April 2004. Users are asked to migrate either to Red Hat Enterprise Linux or the free Fedora Project.