Novell Pledges Open-Source Loyalty
Red Hat has abandoned the low-end Linux market, says IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky. Novell offers more options as it herds customers to enterprise Linux and could fill the retail niche Red Hat left vacant. "The question is, can Novell execute this strategy?" he wonders.
Reinforcing its commitment to open source, Novell has offered a series of announcements aimed at open-platform technologies for the enterprise at the company's annual BrainShare conference, including an earlier-than-expected release of the forthcoming enterprise server.
Novell also introduced open-source initiatives aimed at systems management, data storage and resource management at the event.
Server Combines NetWare, SuSE
The Open Enterprise Server combines the networking capabilities of Novell's NetWare platform with its SuSE Linux server and Ximian desktop products. Customers thus can choose how these services are deployed and which operating environment is preferred, said Novell spokesperson Bruce Lowry.
It is due later this year, with pricing, licensing and availability details to be announced at a later date.
Novell will make YaST, a SuSE Linux configuration tool for systems management, available to the open-source community in an effort to accelerate a multi-platform systems management initiative, Lowry told NewsFactor. "Putting YaST on the GPL will enable interaction across computing platforms," he said.
