A friend recently asked me if I really wanted VMware, a company with a former Microsoft guy in charge, VMware, to buy Novell? His unspoken message was “Wouldn’t that be horrible for Novell’s Linux?”

Bless his heart, clearly he hasn’t been paying attention to the relationship between VMware and Microsoft. VMware, a semi-independent fiefdom of EMC, has no love for Windows at all.

Two years ago, a VMware executive said that in ten more years, Windows would be history. Okay, you say, that was some guy in charge of Australia and New Zealand. It’s not like he’s even in VMware’s top ten executive list.

True, but according to my friend Paula Rooney, today at VMworld, Paul Maritz, VMware’s CEO, virtually proclaimed the death of Windows in his keynote speech. Now, Maritz — he speaks for the company.

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