Userful was mentioned a lot in recent weeks [1, 2, 3]. It has temporarily returned to the headlines thanks to this press release about the collaboration with Novell.

Omni, Userful and Novell have agreed to extend this initiative until the end of 2008 in response to extremely strong uptake from schools in the US, Canada, Australia, South America, Europe and Africa.

Some postings resembling the press release have appeared here and here.

Going green is become a crucial necessity today and several schools and universities are attempting to rationalize IT expenses by switching to multi-station computers, where one PC can support up to ten independent users with just a USB, monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Novell's Linux received a brief mention in this article from a British Webzine.

Licences for business-oriented distros from Red Hat and Novell (Suse Enterprise), for example, require you to pay for support, which means you could end up paying almost as much as you would for Windows. However, most of the others can be downloaded and installed for free, and on as many servers as you want.

Additionally, SUSE was mentioned in CIO.com (IDG) and ZDNet Blogs, but it's nothing significant.

The point is that these are very difficult economic times and as CIO's we have a clear opportunity to move in a new direction that will save our organizations millions of dollars now. The alternatives to Vista and then Windows 7 include an open source desktop such as SLED 10 from Novell or something like Google Applications.

- Runs Windows Server, Red Hat or Novell versions of enterprise Linux, VMware, Netware and Sun Solaris operating systems.

Joe Panettieri pushed a writeup of his into Seeking Alpha. It's mainly about Microsoft and Novell is mentioned too.

At the time, the Microsoft strategy seemed smart. Over and over again, Microsoft has partnered with the No. 2 company in a market (other examples: Sybase (SY), Novell (NOVL)) to challenge or disrupt an entrenched leader (examples: Oracle (ORCL), Red Hat (RHT)).

Gradually, the Sybase relationship allowed Microsoft to bolster its own SQL Server database to compete against Oracle on some fronts. And the Novell relationship has convinced some CIOs to standardize on Windows and Novell SUSE Linux rather than Red Hat Linux.

Last week we wrote about SUSE and Lenovo. There are still some articles about those student sub-notebooks. For example:

1. Netbook For Students introduces by Lenovo

The netbook can also be enabled for mobile broadband. Choices of operating systems include Microsoft Windows XP Home or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell.

2. Lenovo targets new netbook at students

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10e gives institutions the option of using the latest version of Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop instead of Windows XP or XP Pro2, and the opportunity to dress the slate-gray finish in the school's official colors.

Lenovo's servers receive some coverage too, e.g.:

1. Lenovo reaches out to SMBs

All five models run on either Microsoft Windows Server or Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system, according to Lenovo.

2. Lenovo delivers big for SMBs with launch of ThinkServer line

Lenovo is launching three towers and two rack x86 servers, providing a scalable offering to fit the varying needs of businesses ranging in size from one to 500 employees. The ThinkServer family is available with Microsoft Windows Server or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell, Lenovo's preferred Linux operating system provider.

As previously mentioned here, the following is another article about Torque and SUSE, which is supported in South Africa.

Torque IT has been appointed a Novell Platinum Training Partner for SuSE Linux. Torque IT is the only partner in Africa to have met all criteria for this coveted status.

"Torque IT's Novell offering has matured to a large extent and we are pleased to be featured among Novell's highest achievers," says Carol Bouwer, Business Unit manager at Torque IT. "As part of our Novell partner standing, Torque IT will also deliver new certifications and training as soon as they become available and continually develop skills and instructors with only the highest qualifications."

Xandros

It's still mainly about the Eee PC, which might favour GNU/Linux a little more in the future. $200 Eee PCs are said to be coming.

Asustek announced it would be dropping prices on its already affordable Eee PC netbook range. By 2009, we could already be seeing $200 EeePCs.

Here is a new video about Xandros and Intel's Moblin.

Direct link

Scalix, which is owned by Xandros now, has a new solutions partner.

Scalix, a Linux email, calendaring and messaging company, and GeM Solutions, provider of Anywhere to Anywhere E-mail Migration, said they have entered into an agreement to offer the GeM Shuttle Manager for migration to Scalix, from "anywhere," including Lotus Notes/Domino, Novell GroupWise, Fischer TAO, and all IMAP44-compliant messaging platforms.

Worth mentioning is last week's announcement from the same pair. ⬆