There’s no doubt about it. VMware wants to buy Novell’s SUSE Linux and open-source divisions. But, according to a Reuters report, Novell’s board really wants to sell NetWare and the identity management divisions at the same time, and no one wants to pay serious money for them.

In addition, I’ve heard that other companies are interested in buying Novell’s SUSE Linux business. VMware may yet find itself in a Linux bidding war.

I haven’t heard any names. Or, to be more exact, I haven’t heard any names that I think are likely to be serious bidders. Jay Lyman, the open-source analyst for The 451 Group, thinks VMware remains among the likely candidates, as does IBM or CA.” He doesn’t think Oracle will be in the mix. “Oracle’s still on the Red Hat path. But, “Another wild-card for SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) is Microsoft. We will see.”

I still see VMware as the front-runner. IBM likes to use and service Linux, the company has never had any interest in the Linux distribution business. I can’t imagine Microsoft, with Steve Ballmer at its head, buying a Linux company. Ask me again after Microsoft’s get some fresh blood at the top and it may be a different story.

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