Summary: A few bits and pieces about SLES, SLED, Novell's performance, Xandros and Scalix

THERE WAS almost nothing about SLES and SLED in the past week's news. Here is just a boring Novell attraction which was uploaded to YouTube some days ago, having been captured in Computex not so long ago.





On the server side, SLES was mentioned very briefly by Timothy Prickett Morgan at IT Jungle. The article is really about IBM.

It is safe to assume that bigger Power-based CloudBurst iron will get bigger SAN disks behind it, and that the PowerVM hypervisor and the Virtual I/O Server will play big roles in the Power-based CloudBurst setups. And IBM has to support its own i 6.1 and AIX 6.1 operating system as well as Red Hat and Novell Linuxes on the power iron, too.

And here is another new one which mentions NetWare.

There are some smaller mainframes running IBM's z/OS, VSE, or VM operating systems, Unisys sells some relatively small MCP and OS2200 mainframes, and there's still NetWare of a sort from Novell that you might consider proprietary (it is basically NetWare services running atop Linux at this point). Bull even has an emulation layer that allows GCOS 7 and GCOS 8 applications to run on its Itanium-based Novascale systems running Linux.

On the desktop side, SLED 11 being an option on the H-P Mini 5101 earned it some coverage.

The Mini 5101 will still weigh about 2.6 pounds, and buyers will have their pick of Windows Vista, XP Home or Professional, SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, or FreeDOS—if they want to install their own version of Linux.

Another new possibility for SLED:

Low-cost, energy-efficient Userful Multiplier desktops running on Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop have transformed the way SASSA officials capture and process social grant applications in rural South Africa.

Novell and Red Hat are routinely mentioned as the only front runners of GNU/Linux and here is a new example.

Running your favorite flavor of the Linux operating system, such as Red Hat's (NYSE: RHT) Fedora or Novell's (Nasdaq: NOVL) SuSE Linux, a SheevaPlug system simply plugs in to a power outlet and an Ethernet cable, with optional USB accessories like external hard drives.

In light of the strong results from Red Hat, we also found Novell mentioned as the company in Red Hat's shadow. For example:

i. Red Hat: Four Times Novell’s Open Source Revenue?

When Red Hat announced first quarter results on June 24, The VAR Guy spotted a rather interesting detail: Red Hat’s quarterly open source revenues are nearly four times larger than its closest Linux rival, Novell.

[...]

Meanwhile, Novell’s legacy business continues to shrink but newer businesses like SUSE Linux, identity management, security and data center administration offer promising growth. But here’s the problem: Those individual Novell products don’t always create pull for one another, The VAR Guy believes.

ii. Red Hat: Bad economy is good for open source

With profit and revenue up, Red Hat continues to impress, especially as it's not dependent on a competitor for its revenue, which remains the Achilles' heel in Novell's otherwise bright earnings reports.

iii. Red Hat Edges Past Q1 Views, Sees Q2 In Line With Estimates

However, Novell (NasdaqGS:NOVL - News) is another profit-minded open source software company that's been coming on stronger lately, says Aaron Schwartz of Ladenburg Thalmann. Such progress is due in part to the firm's partnership with Microsoft (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News).

The damage done to Novell's reputation is unmeasurable though. And another last one:

iv. Red Hat: Best Stock In Best Sector

If you’re not familiar with Red Hat, it’s the world’s biggest provider of Linux software. It also sells maintenance contracts which includes upgrades, help-desk support and bug fixes. Rivals include Novell and Microsoft.

It is worth adding that the Indian press was the only one to truly refute reports about Novell's plan to sell assets.

Dana Russell, senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Novell, said his company would be interested in making acquisition in the high-growth businesses like identity security and compliance management software, data centre tools and open source software.

Asay repeats this message and someone in the OpenSUSE forums brings up the ludicrous suggestion that Novell may have an interest in buying Mandriva. Nothing good would come out of it, just duplication.

Xandros and SUSE are both mentioned in this new article about Moblin development in China and Taiwan, to which Novell is offshoring.

A number of Linux software makers have already jumped on board with Moblin. Around 15 companies showed off their own versions of Moblin early this month at the Computex Taipei 2009 computer show, including Novell with its SUSE Moblin, as well as Red Flag, Xandros, Linpus and Wind River Systems, which has agreed to be bought by Intel.

Xandros

Sys-con, which supported SCO for the most part, suddenly gives a special room for Xandros, the company which serves Microsoft's anti-Linux agenda. Xandros is also mentioned in the context of sub-notebooks in assorted Web sites, including:

i. Can Asus EEE Netbooks become mainstream?

In continuing the series on Asus Netbooks, I'd like to consider whether Asus can make their product more mainstream, especially as it pertains to U.S. markets.

[...]

1)The default distribution of Linux on the Asus models (Xandros) is clunky and not the best choice. For example, it's difficult to connect to Wi-Fi using WPA in Xandros. I don't know of too many people who have WEP security. Instead, Asus should consider using a Linux version like Unbuntu on it's systems.

ii. How to add an instant-on OS to your Windows PC

Fortunately, help is at hand with Xandros Presto. This instant-on OS installs directly from Windows and offers many of the features as its hardware-embedded competition. In timed tests, Windows Vista took almost two minutes to boot, whereas Presto took a miraculous 20 seconds.

There is also some minor news about Scalix, which is part of Xandros.

Scalix Announces Beta Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server

[...]

1)The default distribution of Linux on the Asus models (Xandros) is clunky and not the best choice. For example, it's difficult to connect to Wi-Fi using WPA in Xandros. I don't know of too many people who have WEP security. Instead, Asus should consider using a Linux version like Unbuntu on it's systems.

Quiet week overall. Light in terms of actual changes. ⬆