Users Approve of Microsoft-Novell Deal, the Vendors Say

Published: January 9, 2006

by Alex Woodie

While there have been some bumps in the road and serious questions about how it will effect the IT landscape, the landmark deal between Microsoft and Novell has the full support of users of Windows Server and SuSE Linux Enterprise, according to a report the two vendors released just after we went on vacation in December.

To judge the reaction of Microsoft and Novell customers to the partnership they created in early November, the vendors hired a market research firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, which went out and interviewed 201 IT executives, managers, and staffers who work in IT or make IT-related decisions for their companies. Practically all of the participants use Windows (98 percent), while Linux and Unix were less prevalent. Solaris was the most popular Unix, with 36 percent reporting they used Solaris. Red Hat the most popular Linux distro, with 31 percent of the users saying they used Red Hat. Only 26 percent of the participants report they use SLES.

According to the vendors, the response from their customers has been overwhelmingly positive. The report found that 95 percent of the participants in the survey approved of the deal. Similarly, 90 percent of the respondents reported that the collaboration will improve the interoperability of IT systems, which was one of the hallmarks of the deal.

However, there wasn't the same level of certainty surrounding how the deal will affect intellectual property (IP) rights. Three-fourths of the respondents said the deal will decrease patent infringement risks for IT customers, while 25 percent said they think it won't do anything to decrease these risks. Shops running Windows and SLES were slightly more optimistic, with 88 percent saying the deal will decrease IP risks. However, the small number of users interviewed who have both Windows and SLES running (52 shops) introduced an 11 percent margin of error on this question, more than double the margin of error on other questions.

The survey hints that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) users may be developing a better outlook on Microsoft, and hints that Microsoft is looking to forge a similar deal with Red Hat. About 70 percent of RHEL users said the deal with Novell gives them a more favorable view of Microsoft, while about 54 percent said they think Microsoft is making a stronger effort to form alliances.

The flip side of that last statistic says that almost half of RHEL users think Microsoft isn't trying any harder--and may even be trying less--to broker new alliances. All the RHEL numbers must be taken with a grain of salt, as the low number of RHEL respondents (63) translated into a 10 percent margin of statistical error.

Despite the uncertainty, Microsoft took the survey as a reaffirmation of its decision to deal directly with Novell.

"This survey confirms for us what we've been hearing from customers all along. They want technology vendors to work together to promote interoperability and to stand behind the products they sell and service," says Susan Hauser, general manager of customer advocacy at Microsoft. "Customers who have mixed-source environments want their platform providers to work better together to tackle the complexity and cost of integration. Through our work with Novell, we're doing just that."

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