Microsoft announced that it was kicking up a notch its initial investment into Linux dating back to 2006, by pouring no less than $100 million into the open source operating system via Novell. According to the Redmond company, the $100 million will be spent on acquiring support certificates for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The move comes as the two companies have announced the expansion of their interoperability partnership inked back in November 2006.

"The collaboration between Microsoft and Novell has been built on our desire to meet our customers' real-life IT requirements as well as give our partners greater breadth in their solution offerings," commented Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.

The Redmond giant continues to emphasize the open source and proprietary software interoperability aspect of the alliance with Novell, especially as far as the Windows and Linux platforms are concerned. Still, the two companies, as well as their relationship, have come under fire for the attempt of delivering intellectual property assurance to customers running mixed-source environments.

"Some customers have told us they want to be able to run Windows Server and Linux together seamlessly, but in many cases, they need help with the transition to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from other Linux environments. Our increased investment in the relationship with Novell is intended to give these customers and partners the best possible Windows-Linux interoperability solution, while also extending their existing Windows Server investments and helping to give them IP peace of mind," Turner added.

In November 2006, Microsoft bought no less than $240 million worth of Novell certificates, meant to be re-sold to customers. The software giant revealed that Novell has already accounted for $157 million in certificate revenues in the last couple of years.

"The strategic partnership between our companies continues to attract customers by building a bridge between proprietary and open source software. The interoperability delivered by Microsoft and Novell has resulted in very high demand for SUSE Linux Enterprise from customers and channel partners, further validating Novell's Linux strategy," stated Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell.