Novell and Microsoft were hailing their partnership this week at Novell's BrainShare conference at the Salt Palace, but not everyone sees a happy marriage.

Bruce Perens, a well-known supporter of the "open source" movement creating software to share with others, says the collaboration ultimately could stunt open-source developers' creativity and perhaps lead to Microsoft swallowing Novell.

Novell, with about a third of its 4,700-person work force in Provo, and Microsoft announced in early November that they would make their products work together. At BrainShare, they said the move will let the open-source Linux computer operating system work on Microsoft's proprietary Windows and vice versa.

Perens said Novell will be in a position to sell open-source software, which its maker developed to be available for free — "given to the world," in his words — and that Microsoft would be ready to sue anyone who doesn't buy it from Novell. Essentially the deal is "working against innovation," he said.

"It just doesn't sound fair to me, the open-source developer, and if this kind of deal continues, people won't really want to write this kind of software," Perens said at a news conference this week across the street from the Salt Palace. "So I think what we're seeing is sort of Microsoft stabbing at the actual motivation behind the creation of open source (software)."

Perens also read a statement from Richard Stallman, executive director of the Free Software Foundation. Stallman said Microsoft has for years threatened to sue the developers and users of free software based on its software patents. "Attacking in combination with a collaborator in our community was much more attractive," Stallman wrote, referring to Novell. "If nothing resists such deals, they will spread and make a mockery of the freedom of free software."

Perens said he would "bless" the Novell/Microsoft partnership if it were merely technical, but he insisted that the situation puts the open-source community and small and medium-sized proprietary software entrepreneurs "quite literally in peril."

He also said Novell will face higher costs, if not more substantial ramifications. "Unfortunately, I'm forced to think this is an exit strategy by Novell. It's the next step for Novell, to be acquired, to become some sort of Microsoft proxy. ... So, over time this does not bode well for Novell, and that's another reason that I just wonder, well, geez, is this really an exit strategy? Will it end up being Microsoft Linux someday or some subsidiary with a different name?"

In one newspaper report, Ron Hovsepian, Novell's president and chief executive officer, dismissed the idea of a Novell takeover by Microsoft.

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