06.06.09
Novell News Summary – Part II: SUSE Videos, Some Moblin, and Just a Little More
Summary: Another relatively quiet week for SUSE, so new articles that merely mention SUSE are searched for and presented instead
SUSE Financial Results
THE STREET, a publication mostly known for its pro-Big Business slant, has written about Novell’s results, casting them as “Threat to Microsoft”. Here is a portion from the article.
“Our Linux and Identity businesses have the greatest potential to continue to expand operating margins,” CEO Ron Hovsepian said in a statement, “and we plan to attain profitability within these businesses no later than 12-18 months from today, barring unforeseen circumstances.”
Novell carries very heavy baggage from the past, so its SUSE business (franchise) does not grow quickly enough [1, 2, 3].
Videos
Here is a new video which relates to Novell’s SLE 10.
Looking and SLE 11, there is another new video from the guy whose review we shared last week. Here is the prior one.
NovellServices, a YouTube account that’s associated with Novell directly, has just put up there this demo.
Remote Mentions
Moving off video, Novell’s SUSE was mentioned only briefly in the following articles:
i. Using the Sun Java Real-Time System
Based on the Java SE 5 codebase, Java RTS runs on Solaris 10, Red Hat MRG Linux, and Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Real-Time Extension (Red Hat and SUSE are POSIX real-time Linux products). Although these OS distributions are officially supported, you can get Java RTS to run on the latest Linux kernel with the RT-PREEMPT patches installed (a requirement to achieve real-time behavior on Linux). Let’s examine some of the features of Java RTS for real-time Java development.
ii. Acer: Android netbook coming in Q3
When it was released it was made available with a choice of Linux or Windows XP. Every model Acer has introduced since then has been Windows XP only, and the Microsoft OS is by wide margin the more commonplace operating system on netbooks from other vendors.
To be fair, netbook versions of Linux have primarily been unusual distros with easy-access UIs rather than standard desktops, but even netbook makers who’ve offered full versions of Ubuntu or SuSE haven’t exactly established them at the forefront of their line-ups.
iii. Regulation Trumps Free Markets, Authors Argue
Fragmenting these industries helps common standards to emerge, according to the book, Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets. This, in turn, allows businesses to become “modularized” so that, for instance, “Microsoft’s operating system and Novell’s applications run on IBM’s hardware while an AT&T Internet connection can be used to access Google’s search engine.”
iv. Oracle’s Ellison gambles with OpenOffice’s future
Just because BEA and Sun are gone or going doesn’t mean this contest will now stop. IBM, Novell, Red Hat and Google are all major contributors and none has expressed an interest in JavaFX. IBM and Google have, infact, been prime movers and supporters of AJAX. You should expect them to resist moving OpenOffice to JavaFX, a technology that’s unproven, owned by Oracle, considered inferior by some experts and that would – as a result – take OpenOffice right outside of the developer mainstream.
v. Sun Boosts OpenSolaris On Networking, Virtualization
The company didn’t specify whether Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell’s SUSE, Ubuntu Linux, or all three were included in the comparison.
SUSE was mentioned very briefly in some other places, but none of the articles actually emphasised Novell. On the other hand, following some results, Novell was used as a model for GNU/Linux growth in some particular publications like this one from Ziff-Davis.
Novell, meanwhile, reported $35 million in Linux platform revenue for its first quarter—a 24 percent growth year over year. There’s also been a fair amount of enthusiasm for a variety of other Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Debian. Even so, the total number of Linux installations based on these numbers seems to be low compared with Microsoft’s Server division sales. But, as the economy continues to stagnate, the real question is whether Linux will gain more momentum than Microsoft on Intel and AMD processors.
Kevin Foster from Novell published an article in ZDNet. He advocates GNU/Linux for desktops and alludes to products that run SUSE.
Over the years, the question “is Linux ready for the desktop” has been raised time and time again, and countless articles have been written about the strengths and weaknesses of this operating system. While desktop Linux adoption has yet to go completely mainstream, recent indicators show that a major change is underfoot.
Linux is primed to take the PC market by storm as more enterprises recognize the value proposition that Linux offers business – more flexibility, customization and affordable options. We’re also seeing hardware manufacturers expanding their Linux offerings on a range of devices. The recent roll out of the new ProBook series of HP notebook devices available with a fully supported Linux operating system is one example and these options is only expected to grow.
Moblin
By large, the most coverage Novell and SUSE received had something to do with Moblin. That’s where Novell boasts an almost-exclusive role, although that is quickly changing*. Here are 5 new articles on the subject:
i. Novell to Demo Moblin-based Operating System on Acer and MSI Devices at Computex
SUSE edition of Moblin will be preloaded on leading netbooks and nettops; Computex attendees will be able to test out new machines TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — COMPUTEX TAIPEI — Novell today announced it will demonstrate the SUSE(R) edition of Moblin version 2 software preloaded on Acer and MSI hardware this week at Computex Taipei, June 2 – 6, 2009. Moblin is an optimized open source Linux software platform for enabling rich Internet experiences on Intel(R) Atom(TM) processor-based netbooks and other mobile systems. Novell is a leading contributor to the Moblin development project and has announced plans to deliver a SUSE edition of Moblin that it will take to market with a wide range of OEMs and ODMs. With Moblin version 2, netbook users will get a fast, secure and easy-to-use computing experience on lightweight, affordable hardware.
Although Intel has had a long standing partnership with Microsoft, the company has teamed up with Novell to develop Moblin specifically for the growing market of netbooks and mobile internet devices.
iii. Taiwan Goes Upmarket With Software Shops
More and more companies have set up labs in Taiwan to give their software added kick. Novell, for example, has a lab here working on software for netbooks and Intel’s Moblin operating system. Such a lab makes sense since Novell gains direct access to the biggest sellers of netbooks like Acer and Asus.
iv. The path forward for Linux is child’s play
This “way” is being paved by Intel, Canonical, Novell, and other companies that have significant experience writing software for normal users, and not merely the alpha geeks of Linux. I’ve spent the past two weeks fiddling with different variants of Linux-based Netbooks, in particular the Linux Foundation’s Moblin Beta 2 (Developed by Intel and Novell) and Canonical’s Ubuntu 9.04 Remix for Netbooks, and I believe they are onto something.
v. Novell to Demo Moblin-based Operating System on Acer and MSI Devices at Computex
Novell today announced it will demonstrate the SUSE® edition of Moblin version 2 software preloaded on Acer and MSI hardware this week at Computex Taipei, June 2 – 6, 2009. Moblin is an optimized open source Linux software platform for enabling rich Internet experiences on Intel® Atom™ processor-based netbooks and other mobile systems. Novell is a leading contributor to the Moblin development project and has announced plans to deliver a SUSE edition of Moblin that it will take to market with a wide range of OEMs and ODMs. With Moblin version 2, netbook users will get a fast, secure and easy-to-use computing experience on lightweight, affordable hardware.
The next post will look at the remainder of Novell’s news from the past week. There is not much of substance there, either. █
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* This is currently changing because familiar companies that include Xandros are still present in sub-notebooks. So are others like Canonical, which has come closer to Moblin. It seems as though there was also a reference to Xandros right here, but no sign of it appears anymore.
