ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft has purchased $135 million worth of stock in struggling Canadian software maker [and Linux supplier] Corel, in a move characterized as a strategic alliance targeting Microsoft's .Net software development platform. Foley writes . . .

“The announcement after the market closed Monday sent ripples through the open-source community, but neither company was talking about what the deal could mean in terms of Linux. Corel has a version of Linux optimized for the desktop. Corel's WordPerfect desktop suite runs on a variety of operating systems, including Linux. A number of industry watchers have been speculating for more than a year that Microsoft was interested in porting its own Office desktop suite, although Microsoft has said it currently has no such plans.”

“In a joint conference call, executives from the two companies did not once mention the word 'Linux.' In response to a reporter's question about whether the deal meant that, at some point, there could be 'Linux on .Net,' interim Corel CEO Derek Burney said it 'just might' . . .”

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