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.

Full Story.