I hope Novell and Microsoft read this quotation from this IBM filing, its Redacted Memorandum in Opposition to SCO's Motion for Summary Judgment on IBM's Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Counterclaims [PDF]. Then just apply it, and we can all be friends. Joke, joke. I know Microsoft isn't looking for friendship. It's looking to kill the GPL. Why would anyone help them?

Microsoft has insisted it did not slash its software prices to encourage Birmingham City Council to abort its Linux project.

Birmingham pulled the plug on its open-source desktop project after it found that an upgrade to Windows XP was cheaper. Birmingham City Council had planned to roll out 1,500 Linux PCs across its libraries, but in the end converted just 200 PCs.

Frost & Sullivan conducted an extensive research in India and published an independent research whitepaper in partnership with leading third consulting firms on TCO analysis of Windows based applications ecosystem vis a vis an open source based applications ecosystem. This Frost and Sullivan whitepaper focuses on the comparison of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Linux in Indian enterprises.

After a week of saber rattling to seed the marketplace with FUD about the dangers of moving away from Microsoft to Linux, look for Microsoft to lodge a lawsuit against a medium sized user that's large enough to be noticed but too small to sustain a defence in court. That's the prediction of a Linux specialist who has been watching Microsoft's actions of the past week.

Less than three weeks after they reached an accord hailed as proof that rival software companies could work together, the chief executives of Novell and Microsoft are engaged in an unusual public dispute.

The pact was seen as an affirmation of the importance of Linux, an open-source competitor to Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and of the need to satisfy corporate customers who want to run both Windows and Novell’s variety of Linux in their data centers.

On the surface, it may seem that the Microsoft-Novell agreement was a watershed moment for Linux. After all, many businesses do not want to be slapped with lawsuits by using software that may infringe software patents of any kind (whether software patents even deserve to be granted remains a separate issue). The deal could calm the nerves of CIOs who are thinking of deploying Linux.

As most people know Microsoft has an anti-Linux program called "Get the Facts" featuring case studies arguing the Windows case. When one of those, wearing the title: London Stock Exchange chooses windows over Linux for reliability, arrived in my email last week, I was sufficiently intrigued by the relative reliability claim to read the thing.

In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer today declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property.