Oracle And Red Hat: Destined to Dance?
Matt Asay (not pictured), the man behind CNet’s Open Road blog, speculates that Oracle could go shopping for Red Hat because Red Hat shares are trading near a 52-week low. Alas, The VAR Guy agrees: Oracle has deep pockets and Red Hat would be a good buy for the company. But The VAR Guy hopes it doesn’t happen. Here’s why.
During a phone chat today, a Web developer asked The VAR Guy if the US financial crisis would send more corporate customers running out to buy low-cost open source solutions. The VAR Guy’s surprising answer: No. Here’s why.
New Channel Chief Javier Colado has his eyes on multiple opportunities to bolster Novell’s partner program. In this quick email interview with The VAR Guy, Colado describes some of his executive experience, and some of his initial goals.
Novell is losing money in the desktop Linux market, but those desktop deals are driving big wins in the server arena, according to Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon. A case in point: Novell’s desktop Linux relationship with Lenovo — the big PC maker — will extend to servers this September, confirms Dragoon.
It’s another small step for consumer Linux, and another giant win for Novell SUSE Linux. The VAR Guy was strolling through his local BJs Wholesale Club over the holiday weekend, when he spotted a Hewlett-Packard 2133 Mini-Note PC (pictured) with Novell SUSE Linux preloaded. Sweet … but not perfect. Here’s why.
Lots of open source fans booed when Novell jumped into bed with Microsoft. But perhaps sleeping with Microsoft really is good for Novell’s health. Anecdotal evidence is starting to suggest that CIOs (chief information officers) actually like seeing Novell and Microsoft arm in arm.

