Dell is to start shipping Linux servers using certificates that Microsoft purchased from Novell last November. 

The company is positioning itself as a trusted third party that can help customers determine whether they should run Linux or Windows on their servers.

Competing server vendors such as IBM, HP and Sun Microsystems have their own Unix operating systems (AIX, HPUX and Solaris respectively) and cannot therefore be trusted to provide independent advice, Dell suggested.

"Dell is a natural fit for Microsoft and Novell because we do not have a Unix that we are trying to protect," Judy Chavis, a director with Dell's product group, said in a video message on the company's Direct2Dell blog. 

Dell plans to help its customers to identify which operating is best for their applications, and to help with migration from other operating systems as well as deployment of new servers.

Microsoft and Novell inked an alliance last year which essentially turned Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) software into the only Microsoft-approved Linux distribution. 

The pair vowed to improve interoperability between the two operating systems and to indemnify Linux customers from intellectual property claims.

Microsoft also committed to purchasing an estimated 70,000 coupons for multi-year subscriptions to SLES for an average fee of roughly $3,500. Microsoft will now sell some of those certificates to Dell.

Al Gillen, a research director covering system software at analyst firm IDC, noted that the Dell agreement provides additional credibility to the Novell-Microsoft deal, but warned that it is unclear how Dell will benefit. 

Dell has traditionally been strong in selling Red Hat servers, the Linux distribution that dominates the enterprise server market.

"Perhaps Dell sees an opportunity here to increase its share for Linux servers running SuSE," Gillen told vnunet.com. 

"Maybe this is Dell's way of boosting its SuSE business without impacting its Red Hat business."