The Wall Street Journal reports that VMware is going to buy SuSE Linux from Novell. What, exactly, that would leave Novell, I can't really say. But I think I know exactly why VMware wants SuSE, and it's got very little to do with actual Linux. It's not about the Linux so much as it is about the Mono.
You see, VMware has Microsoft squarely in its sights. The current game plan for the company is to grab up frameworks and supporting infrastructure to allow VMware to squeeze platform players out of the equation. The biggest such platform is Windows. So, what do you do if you want your customers to cut out one of their vendors, while still allowing those companies to reap the benefits of having dozens of .NET applications? Why, you buy up an open source implementation of .NET.
It may sound a tad far fetched, but I truly believe that the most important thing VMware is getting if it buys SuSE is Miguel de Icaza. If Mono does end up at VMware, you can bet they'll soon be offering a free environment in which to run your .NET applications without the need for a Windows license.