05.30.09
Novell News Summary – Part II: More Moblin, SLES, and SLED
Summary: SUSE news with emphasis on Moblin, where most of the activity persists
Moblin
SUSE was mentioned prominently only in relation to Moblin, so it’s probably a good place place to start.
Ashlee Vance, who started writing for the New York Times about a year ago, wrote about Moblin. It was mentioned in the previous post because it has got a lot to do with OpenSUSE but also with Novell.
The most attention-grabbing element of Intel’s software push is a version of the open-source Linux operating system called Moblin. It represents a direct assault on the Windows franchise of Microsoft, Intel’s longtime partner.
“This is a very determined, risky effort on Intel’s part,” said Mark Shuttleworth, the chief executive of Canonical, which makes another version of Linux called Ubuntu.
[...]
“We really view this as an opportunity and a game changer,” said Ronald W. Hovsepian, the chief executive of Novell, which plans to offer a customized version on Moblin to computer makers. Novell views Moblin as a way to extend its business selling software and services related to Linux.
The side notes from Ashlee Vance were put in his blog.
Why should Novell spend a bunch of money making a netbook operating system when Intel is already doing the heavy lifting?
That is a good question.
SJVN, who has no serious problem with Novell or with SUSE, wrote about the OpenSUSE-dominated Moblin as well (practically, however, Intel and the Linux Foundation still control it). His argument goes like this:
I can only recommend people who like living on technology’s bleeding edge giving Moblin a try at this point. That said, if Intel, Novell and friends can get Moblin to deliver on the promise of its remarkably fast performance and function-based interface, I think we’ve got another real winner coming in what’s already shaping up to be a great year for Linux netbooks.
Moblin is now being snubbed by H-P, which previously used SUSE and now uses its own Ubuntu derivative. From IDG:
HP Snubs Moblin, Rolls Out Mi Linux-Atom Netbook
[...]
The HP Mini 110 will avoid the Moblin Linux operating system developed by Intel andbacked by Novell Inc., in favor of the Mobile internet (Mi) desktop environment HP built on top of a Ubuntu Linux core, said Jonathan Kaye, director of marketing for consumer notebooks at HP.
SLES
Novell was mentioned a couple of times in ECT for its role as a Linux vendor and Paul Rubens did the same for Jupitermedia.
In other words, these non-techies expect Microsoft, Red Hat, Novell and every other Tom Dick and Harry that sells (OK, licenses or just takes money for) an OS to make sure it doesn’t have any significant bugs in them, or suffer the consequences.
Red Hat and Novell are mentioned in tandem also in The Register (twice even), in IDG, in another article from Jupitermedia, and in DailyTech. None of this is significant at all because SLES did not make actual headlines or stories.
The SSDs can also run on Power Systems configured with Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 or later and Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux 4.7 and higher or 5.2 or higher.
While Red Hat is obviously keen on getting its RHEL underneath the Ingres Development Stack for JBoss, the stack is certified to run on Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as well as Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux. Ingres 9.2 runs on a wide variety of platforms, including Windows, OpenVMS, Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX.
Basically, the MCAR technology allows the hardware to “negotiate” with the OS to allow the system to recover from a critical error without the need for a restart, Davis said. Novell, Red Hat, Microsoft, and VMWare all pledged support for the technology, with Microsoft committing to supporting it in Windows Server 2008 R2.
Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat and VMware all issued statements of support, saying their operating systems would support Xeon’s RAS MCA by the time the EX is released.
Intel is also moving away from Fully-Buffered DIMMs to DDR3 Registered ECC DIMMs. It will use its Scalable Memory Interconnect, which has its own internal memory buffers. A new feature known as Machine Check Architecture (MCA) recovery will detect CPU, memory, and I/O errors. It is designed to work with operating systems to correct and recover from otherwise fatal system errors, thus maintaining critical uptime. Microsoft, RedHat, Novell, and VMware are already promising support in their products.
Double-Take Software and Novell had some news to share last week and now comes this video which mentions their support of SLES.
SLED
Tech Web writes about SLED (and SLES) containing some support for Active Directory and other features that are included out of the box.
Last March, Novell rolled out new versions of its SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) and Server (SLES) products. Both offer a number of interesting new features, and SLED 11 is an especially attractive option for business users. Among other advantages, SLED combines solid driver support (including both ATI and Nvidia graphics cards), a well-rounded set of desktop software packages, and an elegant user interface designed to keep both Mac and Windows users happy.
Wyse’s relationship with SLE was covered in the Indian press:
Wyse Technology, a player in thin computing and client virtualization, has announced updates to two operating systems used in the company’s thin clients — Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise and Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 for Virtual client and Cloud environments.
Lastly, SLE was mentioned among the top options for GNU/Linux on the desktop in Alibaba.
Companies such as Red Hat, Novell, Xandros, and Mandriva charge subscription fees that include software updates, documentation, and technical support. These fees vary quite a bit, based upon the type and number of Linux systems: For a one-year subscription for a Red Hat server OS, for example, you’ll pay from around $350 to more than $2,500, depending on the product and level of technical support provided.
Linux users looking for a free ride can still find it: All of these companies’ Linux distros also are available as free, community-supported versions. In fact, the code contributed to distros like Fedora (the free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or OpenSUSE (the free version of Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) often makes its way into new versions of these companies’ commercial Linux releases.
That’s about it for the time being. █
