Article, videos: Linux Linkup for Microsoft, Novell

Businessweek offers their coverageon the Microsoft-Novell announcement., which the WSJ said “makes it easier for customers to use both the Linux and Windows operating systems.“

“In a surprising development, Microsoft (MSFT) on Nov. 2 entered into a broad partnership with longtime rival Novell (NOVL) and agreed to provide some support to Linux, the open-source operating system that competes with its own Windows operating system. Linux, which is developed by a community of software developers who share their code, has long been viewed as one of the most serious threats to the lucrative Windows franchise.

“Under the agreement, Microsoft will offer sales support for SUSE Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell. The two companies have also agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both SUSE Linux and Microsoft’s Windows on their computers. “They said it couldn’t be done,” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in a prepared statement. “This is a new model and a true evolution of our relationship that we think customers will immediately find compelling.”