What Microsoft say about Linux Deal with Novell

From the Editor
Greetings Samuel,

Cheers to you all. We have three big things to celebrate this week. First, I'm writing to you from beautiful and exotic Barcelona, the site of the sold-out Tech-Ed IT Forum. The conference hall is overflowing, so much so that we Microsoft employees were banned from the keynote to make more room. But fear not, this intrepid reporter will not miss out, and neither should you. In fact, we can all check out the IT Forum sessions of interest virtually by joining the Virtual Side. Watch interviews with top experts, listen to podcasts, and see featured sessions via video on demand. It's a good thing I found out about this after I booked my nonrefundable trip to Barcelona. Tapas anyone?

There is good reason to be here live, however, and I'm not talking about the nightlife in Las Ramblas. We're throwing our own party with the official launch of the first Forefront Security products: Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint, both of which will be available in December. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Forefront solutions are based on the Antigen products acquired by Microsoft in the 2005 acquisition of Sybari Software. You don't have to wait for December, though. Check out the public betas of Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint today.

And the third thing to celebrate is the landmark deal between Microsoft and Novell to improve interoperability between Windows and Linux. What's really cool about this agreement is that it acknowledges the fact that so many of you manage mixed-source environments and that, to support you effectively, we have to bridge the divide between open source and proprietary software. To that end, Microsoft and Novell will create a joint research facility to pursue new software solutions for virtualization, management, and document format compatibility. This isn't so much about Microsoft embracing Linux; it's about supporting the choices that customers make and making it easier to deploy Windows in Linux environments and vice versa.

Everyone wins and that's reason to celebrate.

Thanks for reading.
Mitch Irsfeld
Editor, TechNet Flash