One year after sealing their surprise alliance, Novell and Microsoft have announced an expansion of their technical collaboration to "link together the existing Windows and Linux frameworks".

Linux software vendor Novell Inc. of Waltham is expanding its alliance with Microsoft Corp. into China, in a bid to encourage Chinese companies to start paying for the software they use to run their businesses.

Novell will distribute portions of its SUSE Linux enterprise suite that fall under the GPLv3 license directly to customers who purchased certificates that would have entitled them to receive the software from Microsoft.

Novell executives are ending 2007 by praising their own decision last year to form an alliance with Microsoft - - a deal aimed at providing interoperatiblity between Windows and Linux.

Novell’s recent news about China [1, 2, 3] is pretty significant because this shows what tricks Microsoft and Novell hope to make more widespread and prevalent around the world, not just in Asia. It’s a symbolic start that illustrates just why Novell has become dangerous to GNU/Linux adoption (contrary to common belief).

The Novell “partnership” with Microsoft has been a hot topic in Linux circles since it was announced a few years ago. Recently, Novell and Microsoft introduced a joint-marketing site to promote their collaboration.

Microsoft's partnership with Novell got a lot of people in the open-source community fired up. Since then, Microsoft's Linux deals with Linspire and Xandros have just thrown gasoline on the fire. Now, it appears that Red Hat, the leading Linux company and the most vocal opponent to Microsoft wheeling and dealing, tried to make its own deal with Microsoft before the Novell one was released.

Novell to aggressively fight against former partner's claims, unlike Microsoft

Several months ago we wrote very extensively about Microsoft’s motives in joining the OSI. By following the links, you can locate old posts that obviate the need to repeat old arguments. Bruce Perens, as you are probably aware, is one of the louder and best-known protesters against the Microsoft/Novell deal. He continues to focus on this issue, which he has not forgotten.