Below is an article I wrote in July 2001, that was published by ZDNET. The publication is no longer available so I thought I’d post here, especially given the momentous announcement today between Microsoft and Novell. Here is an excerpt of the Microsoft – Novell pact from an article published by ZDNET today.

Microsoft and Novell have just signed the mother of all non-aggression pacts, with Microsoft recommending SuSE for mixed platform work, undertaking to support the system and guaranteeing not to sue over patent issues.

For its part, Novell is committing to working with Microsoft on virtualisation, Open Document Format and Open XML interoperability and, according to the joint press release, “…will undertake work to make it easier for customers to manage mixed Windows and SUSE Linux Enterprise environments and to make it easier for customers to federate Microsoft Active Directory with Novell eDirectory”

The companies are also going to “create a joint research facility and pursue new software solutions for virtualization, management and document format compatibility.”

It only took 5 years for Microsoft to change and accept and even embrace open source. I can’t wait to see how Microsoft will change in another 5 years. Perhaps by then Windows will be available under the GPL.

Opening closed minds to open source
by Richard French, 8/14/2001
In his recent column Jack MacCrisken criticized open source advocates for treating the merits of open source versus proprietary software development as a simplistic battle between the forces of Good and Evil. Let’s be clear. It’s Microsoft that diagnosed Linux as a supposed “cancer” and polarized the debate to begin with. So I’m here to offer a second opinion: Contrary to Dr. Ballmer’s misinformed prognosis, the weight of evidence shows that Linux, and open source software in general, can in fact co-exist with proprietary software.

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