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.

If you recall, Novell's former best friend for SUSE Linux was Microsoft. Microsoft and Novell have a partnership where the two parties had certificates that indemnified SUSE users from any intellectual property liability. In addition, Microsoft officially recommended SUSE Linux Enterprise for hybrid Windows/Linux shops.

While many Linux users hated the idea of the Microsoft/Novell partnership from the start, Ian Bruce, director of Novell public relations, says that “Customers drove” the latest expansion of the Novell/Microsoft deal.

Novell today announced Open Workgroup, a basic Linux set-up for small-to-medium businesses.

In doing this Novell also revealed Microsoft’s open source strategy.

Novell's ownership of UNIX leads to increasingly-prevalent concern that UNIX is not in safe hands; Novell promises to appeal the WordPerfect ruling

Capgemini and Novell today announced a broad partnership that will deliver new solutions to enterprise customers using a combination of open source and proprietary software.

Microsoft and Novell are omnipresent on the panels at the Linux Collaboration Summit; Microsoft's MVP Jason Hiner spreads Ubuntu disinformation again, through Tech Republic and ZDNet

"The bad news: Novell is becoming too reliant on Microsoft. And given the third version of the General Public License could hamper the partnership that’s no idle concern."

Recently, Novell Inc. has been the beneficiary of generally good news. First, Microsoft gave Novell the nod to write open source extensions to its new System Center, which signals Microsoft’s move toward greater interoperability. This will benefit all open source vendors, but Novell in particular, because these extensions are built on Novell’s ZENworks management software.