Could we be looking at a full desktop and server Linux distribution from Novell in the near future? Definitely interesting. Wow. I must admit that I didn’t see this coming at all. Novell buys Ximian? As I mentioned awhile ago, Novell’s definitely been moving up the ladder since they’ve embraced Open Source, but this was wholly unexpected for a number of reasons. First, I never thought that Nat and Miguel would sell, but that might mean that Novell is Doing It Right and won’t mess with a good thing, but will simply be providing a source of funding for the truly innovative and successful Ximian. It looks like Novell won’t simply swallow Ximian, but will take the company as a whole entity and spin it as a business unit, dubbed Novell Ximian Services. Interesting.Could this be a desktop push from Novell, or was this to get their hands on Mono? Probably both, but the initial leaning will probably be on Mono. The most important thing that Novell bought was some stellar Linux experience and coders. If only some other companies would get the clue as Novell seems to have done. Could we be looking at a full desktop and server Linux distribution from Novell in the near future? Definitely interesting.