Novell Acquires Ximian

Novell Acquires Ximian: "Networking software specialist Novell (Quote, Company Info), once a staunch proponent of proprietary software, continued its waltz into the open source sphere Monday with the announcement that it has acquired Ximian, a specialist in Linux desktop, management and groupware technologies.
'That's actually a pretty clever move,' Nicholas Petreley, Linux analyst with Evans Data Corp., told internetnews.com.
He added, 'The downside is that Novell has not historically done very well with its strategies. It could be that, even if they have the most brilliant idea on the planet, they're not going to be able to execute it effectively to make it work. On the other hand, if they can get some good leadership in there, I expect they can present a challenge to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, and they can also leverage some of Ximian's other strengths to break into other areas, such as Mono, the .NET clone.'"

Gee, I wonder if this will lead to a change in Microsoft's stance on Mono...