Microsoft, Novell hold hands in China

IN A MOVE that will send shivers down the spines of open source proponents everywhere, Microsoft and Novell said they would work to make a special blend of open source and proprietary software available in China.

The unlikely pair is putting money into pushing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to bigger companies in the country. It seems the pair recognises that some companies run both open source software as well as proprietary Microsoft products like, um, Vista. It wants these companies to spend money on proper Novell and Microsoft products instead of cobbling together their own freebies.

Ya-Qin Zang, chairman of Microsoft China saide: "We recognise that our customers want to use Microsoft products in heterogeneous environments, and therefore we are pleased to offer this option to meet customer needs in one of the leading global markets."

Microsoft and Novell announced the joint scheme back in November 2006. As part of the deal, the pair agreed to stop squabbling about who owned what code in each other's offerings.

The China collaboration in China will focus on pushing high-performance computing and virtualisation software from both companies. The scheme offers the Chinese "IP peace of mind and technology interoperability", the firms said in a statement yesterday.

It seems the first fruits of the colloboration will include a bunch of round-table discussions with techies in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, and a series of technology workshops. We'd love to be a fly on the wall at some of these shindigs. µ