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SALT LAKE CITY—Microsoft and Novells partnership is more than the cosmetic addition of Microsoft as a platinum partner to Novells annual BrainShare partner conference.
Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian said during his keynote speech that the companys recent partnership with Microsoft represented an “ecosystem change” for Novell.
Hovsepian went on to say that “This deal was done for one reason—the customer. This was all about driving customers to make their lives easier, and about interoperability. This is a customer-driven move and we will remain customer-focused.”
This customer focus theme was repeated over and over again.
While some free-software fans oppose the Novell-Microsoft partnership, Hovsepian was not addressing their concerns. He was addressing what he believes to be the concerns of Novells partners and their customers.
In the next sections of the morning keynote session, the benefits of the Microsoft-Novell deal were reiterated over and over again. Novell VP and CTO Jeff Jaffe and Microsofts chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie appeared together on the trade show stage and engaged in a question and answer section.