"rudi" had an interesting comment to mention of the SARS Enterprise Linux tender - that the tender sounded like it was designed for Novell. I think there's a likely explanation - it was designed by Novell.
Before anyone thinks I've suddenly fallen onto the conspiracy theory bandwagon, I think this is entirely above-board at the same time.
Having listened to Stafford Masie speak about Novell and Open Source at various events over the past six months or so, I think he's got the argument down now. Watching him at the ITWeb Open Enterprise panel discussion taking on the Microsoft representative, there was no argument that wasn't expected and rebutted with confidence.
This means that the bastions of proprietary software's best arguments against a company using Open Source and Linux are understood by Novell, and they've come to market with a solution that covers them.
This doesn't mean that I've left my mostly undecided position on Novell's real intentions. But they're certainly going about things in a way that makes it hard to believe they're not serious about the power of Open Source in terms of commoditisation and raising the bar for all software for all users and their future building and building upon some Open Source.
So, having identified the best arguments, what should Novell do? Well, they're telling everyone. If you didn't get Open Source, this would sound terrible. Why tell people the best reasons not to use a product? In Open Source, we accept that being open and honest about the state of play with our code and organisation has disadvantages, but that the advantages dwarf them.
Even in pure business terms, when you know that your opposition is going to say you're painting a rosy picture your best bet is to tell the truth up-front. Otherwise your potential client hears from your opposition, and you lose integrity in their eyes. If your opposition is attacking exactly where your defenses are placed, your client isn't going to take them seriously.
So, it seems likely that Novell's message of the risks of Open Source and how they're planning to mitigate them has reached SARS and have played a role in the formation of the tender.
Novell will certainly have an advantage in this tender (especially since it was only open for eleven days), but its position is hardly assailable. And no matter the winner, it's a big win for Open Source if quality tenders are received and the winner impresses SARS. And the losers will know what everyone will be wanting in their next tender.