A few weeks after the Novell/Microsoft announcement the Samba Team have officially requested Novell reconsider their stand on patents. The Samba project is an important (if not crucial) piece of open source software that is allowing a wide variety of platforms (but mainly Linux) to compete head to head with Microsoft solutions in the workplace. Jeremy Alison co-heads the Samba project and is an employee of Novell but obviously this has not stopped the team from taking a moral stand against software patents and the actions of Novell and Microsoft.
This stance is completely opposite to the Mono team leader Miguel de Icaza's official support of the deal, but this is not surprising considering 99% of Mono development is funded and directed by Novell. I doubt Novell will heed Samba's request but at least its good to see such a prominent project take such a decisive stand on the matter.