Novell's SuSE purchase in perspective. We listened to the inevitable "We all love each other and everything is going to be wonderful" press conference, looked at readers' reactions to the original Novell buys SuSE announcement, monitored and asked questions in assorted IRC channels, and talked to contacts at Novell, SuSE, Ximian, and elsewhere. But whatever we say (or anyone else says) this week, don't expect the full effect of Novell's SuSE purchase to be visible for at least two months. [NewsForge]

A good summary of today's events.

8:32:39 PM    

This morning Novell and Suse Linux each announced that Novell had agreed to acquire Suse Linux for $210 million in cash.  This comes on the heels of Novell's recent acquisition of Linux desktop vendor Ximian.  With this acquisition Novell now has it all: top-flight network operating system, superior network services, and a viable desktop. The big question: Can they compete against the MSFT juggernaut?

From the press release:

• Novell expands its open source commitment and will become the first to offer comprehensive Linux solutions for the enterprise from the desktop to the server
• Novell will be the only $1 billion software company with a Linux distribution and the worldwide technical staff to support it
• Novell/SUSE LINUX to become the world’s largest supplier of desktop-to-server Linux solutions and technical support
• Customers to gain worldwide technical support for enterprise Linux solutions from a company with more than 20 years of operating system experience
• IBM and Novell to negotiate extensions to commercial agreement with Novell/SUSE LINUX to support the IBM eServer line

9:48:05 AM