Novell Comes Out Swinging Against Microsoft with Linux

Novell Comes Out Swinging Against Microsoft with Linux ""Microsoft took away a lot of our new licensing over the years and we learned to live on maintenance," Messman said. "Now the revenue generator around Linux is maintenance. The remarkable potential for Linux has become obvious to anyone that's paying attention. There are very few customers who are not doing something on Linux." Novell chief technology officer Alan Nugent added, "We're not abandoning Windows from a product perspective but we think the market will abandon Windows at some point. We will maintain our commitment to the Windows desktop for as long as our customers want us to.
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But Messman's most interesting comments regarded Microsoft's recent decision to strip the WinFS feature from Longhorn. "They wanted to cut us off," he said. "The more time we have to sell against Longhorn, the worse it is for them." Thus, Messman says, Microsoft will ship Longhorn early in order to prevent Linux from catching up to Windows."