Dell is the first computer maker that will join Microsoft and Novell Linux alliance. According to the terms of agreement, Dell will purchase SUSE Linux Enterprise Server certificates from Microsoft. Also, the Texas-based company will establish a marketing program to migrate its non-Dell Linux customers to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

"We're focused on delivering solutions that help simplify customers' IT operations," said Rick Becker, vice president of solutions at Dell Product Group. "Our customers have told us they want interoperability and expect technology vendors to work better together. Dell is the first major systems provider to align with Microsoft and Novell in this collaboration, and we intend to lead in this space. This move is a huge success for the industry and, more specifically, for customers who haven't purchased Linux through Dell and who want to migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for the IP assurance and interoperability benefits." The financial terms of agreement were not disclosed.

In November last year Microsoft and Novell announced a  set of broad business and technical collaboration agreements to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft products work better together. These agreements will be in place until at least 2012.

According to Microsoft, since the announcement, more than 40,000 new certificates for three-year priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server have been activated.

Last week Dell announced it will offer consumer computers that come preloaded with the open source Linux operating system.  The computers will use a version of Linux called Ubuntu and will be available by the end of the month.