I think that for the office space, the following is true. But for developers working on Windows software and home users, this might be a little bit later down the road.

Twenty months after entering into the Linux market by acquiring Suse, Novell has outlined its strategy to counter Microsoft in 2006.

Jack Messman, chief executive of networking software vendor Novell says that 2006 will see widespread adoption of Linux on the corporate desktop. According to Messman the catalyst will be the release of Microsoft Windows Vista and the high costs associated with upgrading.

Speaking at the company’s BrainShare conference and expo in Barcelona on 12 September, Messman said: “The window of opportunity for migrating will be when Vista comes onto the market. The cost of migrating from Windows XP to Vista will be higher than the cost of migrating to Linux and that will push migrations to Linux,” he said.

Novell claims that adoption of Linux as a desktop computing platform is growing in Europe. Recent customers include Estonian bank SEB Esti Uhispant, ARS Altman of Germany, an automotive logistics solutions provider and the Allied Irish Bank Group. [Read the rest]