Leopard Server faces an x86 server market turned inside out

I've been glued to the fascinating reality show that is the legal battle pitting SCO and Microsoft against IBM, Novell, and the whole of the server computing universe. There's been an Apple angle all along, but just hacking my way through the dense brush of information has occupied most of my time. I'm finally writing again.

If you haven't been watching, here's my view of the present: SCO Group's UNIX copyright infringement/contract violation litig-a-thon is sinking fast from holes its own lawyers punched in its hull, plus a fusillade of bon voyage torpedoes fired by Novell's rock star legal team. Novell took the offensive against SCO by filing Novell v SCO, and as part of that action, demanded transcripts of correspondence between Microsoft and SCO. Microsoft was an early and enthusiastic endorser of SCO's righteous campaign to protect its intellectual property, and it wielded SCO as a litigious boogeyman to terrify competitors' customers into switching to Windows. Of course I could be reading more into it than the facts support, but see the Steve Ballmer quote at the bottom of this post and tell me what you think. This was par.

Novell set aside one waterborne missile inscribed Novell v Microsoft. While counting down, Novell offered Microsoft one chance at having the firing locks returned to safe position. Novell couldn't have inflicted much lasting damage on Microsoft, but it would have been a public civil trial, a grand humiliating mess, and really, Novell's actions were unpredictable. It's not like Novell didn't have a score to settle, and Microsoft doesn't need to join Intel as a party to root against in an anti-trust case.

Microsoft bought its way out of Novell v Microsoft, I think, by pretty much ceding majority share of the x86 enterprise server market to Novell. The deal, which Microsoft announced as a partnership, is a real ankle-grabber: a) Microsoft will give 70,000 licenses of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server to Windows server customers, b) Microsoft will let Novell ride along on sales calls, c) Microsoft waives its right to sue Novell over intellectual property, and d) well, the D is not something that Microsoft is handing over. But it's an awfully big D.

Novell is going to take back ownership of System V UNIX. It supposedly transferred this to SCO, but a Federal Judge found that the contracts had more holes than paper. Novell has leave to contest the agreements, and if SCO goes belly-up while the matter is in debate, Novell's there to snatch up a very valuable property.