When Novell makes a big Linux announcement, does Microsoft hear it?

Chris Stone, vice chairman of Novell, says the recently announced agreement to put his company's version of SUSE Linux on Hewlett-Packard (HP) PCs is "re-energizing Novell." It also raises the question of what a development like this does to Microsoft's dominant position in the PC operating system space. The answer—at least for the foreseeable future—is: not much. "A number of large customers told us they want to try Linux desktops," Martin Fink, VP of HP's Linux business, says in explaining HP's rationale for partnering with Novell. "If we don't give them the option, our competitors will. We still have a multiple operating system strategy. There are roughly 160 million [PCs] sold each year. Linux currently has 2 percent of that market, and analysts predict it will have 7 percent to 10 percent by the end of the decade." In short, he was saying, you do the math.