In the space of a few weeks the open source movement has undergone a seismic transformation. Firstly, database giant Oracle announced its intentions to effectively become a distributor of the Linux operating system – while undercutting the price of services offered by market leader, Red Hat. Then, long-time open source opponent, Microsoft, dropped its own bombshell: It was teaming up with Novell in promoting the SuSE version of Linux. But does the involvement of Microsoft add credibility to the open source movement or undermine its principles?

Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel of Microsoft says that the Novell partnership was based on creative thinking about how to create an intellectual property bridge between the two worlds of open source and proprietary software. “This bridge is built on respect for the innovations of each company and the open source community.”

Microsoft and Novell will remain competitors, he says, but where customers demand a mixed environment, Microsoft will recommend SuSE as its preferred distribution of the Linux operating system.

This marks a radical departure from a company whose CEO, Steve Ballmer, once warned that the open source movement would cripple software development because it does not allow for the protection of investment in intellectual property.

Microsoft is seen as the number one enemy of the open source movement. Yet the company has been making tentative steps towards experimenting with open source software for the last five years now. It has open sourced a number of Windows-based projects such as Windows installer technologies and Iron Python which is hosted on Microsoft’s community development web site, Codeplex.

In the short term the deal gives Novell a better position in the market, particularly now that Oracle has entered the fold. But despite its pact with Novell, Microsoft’s announcement that it now has a preferred Linux partner could spell trouble for other distributors, as the prospect of a series of patent disputes becomes more tangible.

The experts' response...

Bruce Perens, vice president of developer relations and policy at SourceLabs, warns that the deal will impede open source innovation.

You can be sure that Microsoft is not out to help a competitor. This paves the way for Microsoft to implement significant control over a commercial customer’s use of free software. And it has significant negative implications for open source in general. This sets Microsoft up to assert its patents against all commercial open source users. There will now be a Microsoft-approved path for people to make use of open source and an expensive subscription to Novell SuSE Linux that costs as much or more than Microsoft Windows – and that comes with a patent license.

Chris Papayianni, European general manager at Novell says the deal gives customers greater choice, and more efficient and manageable software.

I think Microsoft understands that customers are demanding better interoperability between platforms, better workflow management and a more cost efficient infrastructure. We can now ensure that there will be good interoperability at the data centre level. We have always been positioned as a company that provides a mixed source environment. What you are seeing here with this announcement is an integration of our own proprietary components around open source technologies and the extension of this approach to now include Microsoft.