my current 2 cents on the Microsoft - Novell deal

“We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent issue, even while we respectfully take a different view. Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not admit or acknowledge any patent problems as part of entering into the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place." http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-20Statement.mspx

It sounds a lot like while M$ may think some IP patents may be infringed upon they are likely infringing upon more patents Novell holds and do not want to end up on the loosing side of several patent lawsuits.

Hopefully this deal won't end up generating more lawsuits but rather generate a much more usable workplace. It'd be nice to be able to manage all the windows desktops from my Linux desktop and servers so I can make sure they are all getting properly backed-up, updated, current software installed and security settings in place. It would also be very beneficial to have the option to move some of our users to Linux desktops while using the same applications they currently do while enjoying the flexibility of the open source operating system.

firefox only (for now) ajax office components

http://us.ajax13.com/en/

from what I've seen so far it looks pretty nice and I look forward to trying out the rest of it's features

for more information go to the site above and http://go2web2.blogspot.com/2006/11/ajax13-new-look-for-ajaxlaunch.html