We would rather compete in court

Ray Noorda, when he bought Unix Systems Labs from At&T in 1993 declared he would rather compete in the marketplace than in court. Ray and Novell, of course, tried to battle Microsoft for years in both venues.

So a few weeks after Ray's death and a few before Vista gets ready to launch comes this deal between Microsoft and Novell.

Sure, there is all the right language about corporate customers wanting them to work together. But with words like "no covenant not to sue" my initial thoughts were this is more about competing in court. Steve Ballmer then followed up with a comment "If a customer says, 'Look, do we have liability for the use of your patented work?' Essentially, if you're using non-SUSE Linux, then I'd say the answer is yes,"

I checked with my buddy Hank "Memphis" Jones - his response ""Only litigation years later will tell us what the real/detailed deal is/was"

He also pointed me to Groklaw - this post and this one and the hundreds of comments that follow  - make the deal as clear as mud.

A lawyer's dream. A CIO's nightmare.

Update: November 20 - unraveling already?