Novell to Detail Microsoft Agreement

Novell will give more details of its patent deal with Microsoft, although the full story wouldn't be revealed as the company plans to redact some of the more sensitive details.

The release of the information had been delayed due to the company's troubles surrounding a stock option scandal. The document is set be released along with Novell's annual 10-K filing.

The deal has caused much consternation in the open-source community, and some groups are pushing for changes within GPLv3 that would effectively prohibit such deals in the future.

Essentially, the agreement protects Novell from lawsuits by Microsoft over patent infringement in exchange for interoperability work, as well as giving Redmond's customers the option of running SUSE Linux if they so wish.

Novell is benefiting greatly from the partnership. Microsoft was the company's biggest source of sales during the first quarter. However, even with the success of the deal, Novell is still not pleased with Microsoft's recent comments on open source.