It was a toss up between putting this here or in Linux-Software. If I'm wrong, no doubt a wandering Mod will shift it.

From The Register comes the story about Novell buying Ximian.

Whilst it's great to see a big company taking an interest, what happens when (some time down the road) Novell need to cut costs? Would that mean they jettison Linux support and Ximian? If they sell on Ximian, could we then have a situation with a Microsoft clone/imitator buying it up and then trying to charge?

Or am I just scaremongering?

Posted a question about Novell and Linux in the general forum and didn't get any responses ... So here's my thoughts about the deal.
I think that Novell is going to try and leverage Linux. They are going to try to incorporate Novell's current products and pitch it as an effective solution to company problems. They already have a linux page http://www.novell.com/linux/ and it looks like they will probably be doing Redhat and SUSE support by the end of the year.
As far as what happens if Novell decides it doesn't want to work with Linux anymore I guess that could happen if Linux looses market share...

Novell already provides free *nix versions for their groupware client, so I don't think they will begin to charge for Ximian's products. If they do, Kolab is looking pretty promising. I really hope the Mono project stays on track...