A Developer's point of view

And here we go....

The deal:

It contains, mostly, an agreement between Novell and Microsoft of not to sue each other clients, over patent infringements. That means, if you own a copy of Windows or Novell SUSE, the other company will not sue you. Notice that is does not says anything about companies suing them. On this agreement, Microsoft payed Novell u$s 440 millions, and Novell payed $40 millions to Microsoft.

Here you can see the official explanation from Novell
http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/community_open_letter.html

Explanation from SUSE developers:
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/27/2113210

Novell's CEO comments:
http://www.cpilive.net/v3/inside.aspx?scr=n&NID=1053&cat=INTERVIEWS&pub=COMPUTER%20NEWS%20MIDDLE%20EAST&k=Microsoft,%20Novell

Novell CTO Jeff Jaffe explains their strategy:
http://www.novell.com/ctoblog/?p=39

Ubuntu and OpenSUSE:

After the deal, many hard critics came from the community. Some stated that Novell had sell out. Others, wanted to hold the community together by embracing the displeased developers. This was the case of Mark Shuttleworth. He sent an open invitation to OpenSUSE developers, to join the Ubuntu team. Part of the community, like me, saw this as a support to OpenSUSE developers and an opportunity for Ubuntu to add very valuable developers. Critics to this action came mostly from members of the Novell community. Their statement was that this invitation would only make OpenSUSE situation worst. I think that is an excellent point, but misses to see the importance of the invitation. It was intended to keep OpenSUSE developers, willing to leave Novell's surroundings, inside the community.

Mark Shuttleworth's invitation:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/81

Answers to the invitation, from SUSE:
http://www.novell.com/coolblogs/?p=648
http://daniel.molkentin.de/blog/index.php?/archives/58-Ubuntus-Quest-for-OpenSUSE-Developers.html

Satire of the invitation:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2006-November/022578.html

Mark's response to SUSE critics:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/84

Novell loosing its members:

And the force of inevitability...
Members of Novell's community started their travel away. Mainly, they wanted to stay away from any relationship with Microsoft. This was the case of Jeremy Allison (Samba). He warned Novell of his next decision, if the deal were signed, but nothing changed. And then defined Novell's step as "a mistake".

Jeremy Allison Resignation:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061221081000710

Jeremy Allison comments on the deal:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20527

Samba Team Asks Novell to Reconsider:
http://news.samba.org/announcements/team_to_novell/

RedHat's position:

Some has approached this event in a different way. RedHat clearly saw Novell's mistake, so when they were approached by Microsoft to make the same deal, they rejected it immediately. They made public statements that they will never do something like. Of course, that is nice to hear to the community members. As a company, Redhat, used the situation to improve their image.

RedHat on ZDnet:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39285126,00.htm

Microsoft desperation:

With all this tragical reactions over the agreement, Microsoft actions were shown, as they were, bad-intended. So, they rushed to start a "positive" campaign. Some supporting the agreement appeared on Slashdot and Microsoft pages. But, at the same, they started show their teeth: "Microsoft and Novell have agreed to disagree on whether certain open source offerings infringe Microsoft patents and whether certain Microsoft offerings infringe Novell patents.[...]". I think that says enough....

Microsoft Statement on Novell Agreement:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-20Statement.mspx

Patent Cooperation Agreement - Microsoft & Novell Interoperability Collaboration:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/patent_agreement.mspx

Community Commitments - Microsoft & Novell Interoperability Collaboration:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/community.mspx

My conclusions:

This is a serious situation. Nobody inside Linux community should turn away its eyes from it. This affect us all. Please notice that when refer to the community, I'm talking of anyone using a Linux OS or that at least gives his friendly support. Let's not keep quiet...

Notice:
Any other information or comments will be very welcome ;-). And I'll be pleased to add them.

Thanks:
I kept myself informed of this following, mostly, Groklaw news. So. I'd like to thank them for their excellent work!

Update 12-01-07:

Funny joke on the deal:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070107&mode=classic