THE state of Novell continues to be tracked and will be caught up with later this month.

One of Novell’s products, Vibe/Pulse, was declared dead earlier this year, but Novell keeps uploading videos about it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. It is probably not a marketing spillover because there are signs that Novell refuses to let this project go. Mixed messages for sure.

Disdain of Novell is a defence of the interests of FOSS because Novell forms a bridge for Microsoft to charge a tax/toll on FOSS. There is this new product coming from another company that does this. It is called Tuxera and it helps Microsoft tax file systems in Linux (and Android). We sometimes aptly call it “taxera”.

There is not much news from Novell, but those who try to keep abreast of things scrape some material that we will cover later this month. Novell won’t be named for much longer because it was bought. Then there is the story of Linspire/Xandros and Turbolinux, whose staff we find in new places:

Prior to Lyris, Luis oversaw global business development and sales at Turbolinux, where he led the launch of international subsidiaries in Argentina, Australia, Germany and the UK. Rivera also led international sales at IMSI, a publicly traded software publishing company, and business development at @Road, a mobile resource management solution provider.

In other news that we shall cover more thoroughly later this month, OpenSUSE (Attachmate) plans to have presence at FOSDEM despite the fact that SUSE is a bit of a pariah. To quote:

FOSDEM is the biggest event organized by and for the Free and Open Source (FOSS) community. Its goal is to provide developers a place to meet, come together and share and discuss ideas. The event happens 4-5 February 2012 in Brussels, Belgium. And there will again be a cross-distribution mini conference at FOSDEM this year. By organizing a mini conference where all distributions participate in we foster collaboration and cross pollination. You are hereby invited to hold a session.

This is actually quite harmless because it does not involve any of Microsoft’s trojan horses that Novell/SUSE is used for (e.g. Mono, Microsoft kernel drivers, OOXML). Let us know of any Novell news we might have missed (in comments/IRC). █

Summary: A quick look at Novell’s workforce and how it’s getting along

A YEAR ago we wrote about Novell and ACS, noting that Novell’s 5-year contract with ACS was estimated at about $135 million and compromised existing staff that was located in Provo, Utah. Novell’s PR people talked about it later on and now we have this news about ACS and Novell:

Based on these findings, the Department is amending this certification to include workers leased from Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., (ACS) working on-site at the Provo, Utah location of Novell, Inc.

Novell continues to rest on its legacy laurels, which are a dying business that continues to exist in some less modernised places.

Godfrey Lee’s computing environment consists of several Novell servers, file servers and window servers all virtualized with VMware.

Here is Novell’s latest PR in Australia and in New Zealand.

Software vendor, Novell, and its distributor, Open Channel Solutions (OCS), recently held a competition among schools to show off their football skills. Called the NOCS Student Video Competition, it ran from December to April 30 and encouraged students to produce a creative video that ran up to two minutes. It was open to all schools using Novell.

Following a string of dates in Australia, the Novell IT in Action tour will land in Wellington on August 17th.

Does New Zealand know about Novell's policy regarding software patents? Novell is bad influence. And speaking of influence, here is a new press release bearing the headline “Alex Ash Joins Messaging Architects as Business Development Director to Advance Company’s Activities with Microsoft and Novell Partners in the UK”

Other short reports indicate that former Novell staff is coming to other companies, e.g.:

i. Human Capital: People on the Move

FreshAddress Inc., a Newton-based provider of e-mail database services, appointed Andrew Cruickshank and Paul Garland senior account executives. Cruickshank and Garland each have more than 15 years of sales experience. Cruickshank previously served with RentGrow Inc., Lycos.com, Monster.com and Lotus Development. Garland previously served with Grant Thornton LLP, Novell Inc., Electronic Data Systems and Unitech Systems Inc.

ii. Central Logic Hires VP

Lyman has also served at McCann Erickson, Intel Corporation, LANDesk Software, Merit Medical Systems, Wicat Systems, and Novell.

There is a similar movement to watch out for — one which involves TurboLinux staff, e.g.:

i. Lyris Continues Global Growth with Expanded Australian Presence

Stanton has held senior positions in companies such as Foxtel, TurboLinux, IMSI, IDC, Data Solutions, Lead Master and various other international organizations.

ii. Linux Professional Institute Announces Volunteer Prizes and Community Initiatives

LPI’s major financial sponsors are Platinum Sponsors IBM, Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, Novell, SGI, and TurboLinux as well as Gold Sponsors, HP and IDG.

TurboLinux is pretty much dead by now. That’s what happens to almost every Linux-oriented company that signs a patent deal with Microsoft. █

Summary: Novell news items reveal a proprietary software company boasting an agenda that conflicts with software freedom; Turbolinux too gets its paws on the Linux cake

WHILE companies and entire cities are bailing out on Novell, there is realisation that Novell “continues to disappoint,” according to this new report (Bharat Book Bureau), which accompanies an older one from the same source. What is up with Novell’s present strategy anyway? Let’s find out by reading this week’s news.

Proprietary Novell

Novell has hardly any new products except the impending release of OpenSUSE 11.3 (notice new alert about Java). Instead of creating something of real value, Novell is taking Sun’s customers:

This second note is for users of Sun Microsystems identity management products. Novell is now offering a free license for the equivalent Novell product. That’s right — Sun customers with a perpetual license can now swap their products with a Novell equivalent for only the cost of maintenance.

Worldox makes another appearance in addition to coverage of GroupWise support and Novell directory services support. These are all proprietary software products (with new security problems [1, 2]), so there is nothing to be celebrated here. This belated coverage of Sentinel Log Manager is probably the only thing which speaks about a new product, but that too is proprietary. Almost everything in Novell news these days is about proprietary software and Fog Computing. Another new example:

BasisOne (Pty) Ltd., a member of Swicon360 group of companies and one of Africa’s first SAP-accredited hosting providers, has received a European Identity Management Award for a cloud computing solution the company implemented utilising IAM technology provided by Novell.

Fog Computing is sometimes worse than proprietary software.

Novell Staff

UC4 is getting a new CEO, who happens to be a CEO whose company was bought by Novell:

Liu was most recently president and CEO of Univa UD, a recognized leader in cloud systems management software. His extensive technology and management experience includes serving as CEO of Callisto Software, a mobile systems management company acquired by Novell, and as CEO of Intrinsic Technologies, a Microsoft infrastructure software and services provider.

This is also covered in:

• UC4 Software Announces New CEO
• UC4 taps Liu as CEO
• UC4 Hires Jason Liu as CEO
• UC4 Software Names CEO

Another former Novell employee makes his move and the founder of Turbolinux is given privileges by the Linux Foundation:

In the other news of the year, one will also note that the Linux Foundation has opened an office in Beijing earlier this year and appointed a local representative, Cliff Miller, who is a Linux and open source veteran. He’s former TurboLinux founder and now a DeviceVM and LF executive. This signals that Chinese companies are also starting to contribute financially the Linux Foundation and it’s a very strong sign of changes in my opinion.

TurboLinux signed a patent deal with Microsoft and DeviceVM has software patents which it uses to sue rival companies. Does the Linux Foundation endorse that?

Novell Versus Sun

Speaking of software patents, Novell's Meeks has some and he is still ridiculing the Sun/Oracle stewardship of OpenOffice.org this week. He mocks other Sun products too, JavaFX for example.

Suffice to say, Novell promotes Mono and Moonlight, so Java and JavaFX are competitors. A few days ago we found this in the news:

As with Flash, Apple remains a non-supporter of Silverlight, because it does not allow runtimes and third party compilers on its operating systems (something that proposed changes to EU competition law may challenge). The main side door with which to run Silverlight on the iPhone – or, until it is officially ported, Android – is the open source Novell Mono project, whose Moonlight platform puts .Net technologies on non-Windows OSs. It has shown off MonoDroid, and iPhone and MeeGo versions (unlike some attempts to divorce Microsoft tools from Windows, Mono has the giant’s support).

Right… OK. So in summary, Novell primarily promotes proprietary software (and adheres to Microsoft protocols), it wants to spread software patents, it strives to control OpenOffice.org and it works against Java, instead promoting Microsoft’s way of doing things. Why are some people still defending Novell? It must be PR. █

Summary: A little interlude about where the site is going and why it needs help from readers

There is some discussion in the IRC channel about what may happen to Novell next. We are still producing almost 1 megabyte of IRC discussion per day (usually about 600 kilobytes on average), which makes up about 95% of feedback from readers (Boycott Novell is approaching an audience of 10,000 unique visitors per day, but commenting requires an account).

We thought it would be reasonable to say something about the future now that Novell is at a mortal crossroad because of a vulture fund that had a coup planned for 3-4 months [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. We append some more references at the bottom.

“If Novell was bought and dismantled, this Web site’s name would remain for all all sorts of practical/technical reasons and considerations.”Four GNU/Linux vendors (as opposed to users of it, mostly those who embed it in hardware) signed a Linux patent deal with Microsoft in 2006-2007. The GPLv3 may have stopped this flood of feeble vendors which ended up joining the racket. Linspire got picked up by Xandros, which appears to have almost quit the GNU/Linux market, Turbolinux sort of collapsed onto another firm in Asia, and Novell is now the last one standing. This is major as it means that almost all the companies we boycotted are dying, as opposed to those who kept it ‘clean’ (notably Mandriva, Canonical, and Red Hat). This just comes to show what happens to those who foolishly take Microsoft’s side.

The main issues are still the digital hydras known as Apple and Microsoft, both of which are now legally attacking GNU/Linux with software patents (Apple versus HTC [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], Microsoft versus TomTom, SCO versus IBM, et cetera).

If Novell was bought and dismantled, this Web site’s name would remain for all all sorts of practical/technical reasons and considerations.

We will try to focus on delivering news summaries on a daily basis (these are the most popular items here) and also address threats to Free software. With a Ph.D. completed, I hope to write Boycott Novell full time (sacrificing an academic career to advance the freedom of software), but it would not be possible without help from readers. We estimate that there are many thousands of regular readers who have enjoyed this site for over 3 years (almost 10,000 blog posts were published here), so if each reader was willing to donate a few bucks/quid, that would enable us to carry on going. At the same time, we realise that such moves rarely work as they do not bring in funds, so we are left reluctant to ask for financial assistance (even though it’s needed). Any advice would be appreciated. █
____
[1] How Much Will Novell Go For? [The 451 Group reckons Novell's sale is inevitable]

As bargains go, Novell’s (NOVL) valuation in the recently floated bid from a hedge fund is a bit like a ‘crazy Eddie’ discount. Earlier this week, Elliott Associates offered $5.75 for each of the roughly 350,000 shares for Novell. Altogether, the equity value totals about $2bn.

[2] Will Novell Finally Be Acquired? [from the 'Microsoft press']

[3] Novell Gets $2 Billion Takeover Offer From Elliott

Whether they’re interested in breaking Novell into pieces or simply after Novell’s patent portfolio or intellectual property remains to be seen at this point. Either way I don’t see the acquisition being good for Novell or Open Source though. Which brings the next question. Is another suitor likely to jump in at this point. the Var Guy lists IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Computer Associates as potential options. I’d add Cisco as another potential Dark Horse candidate, but agree that IBM and HP are exceedingly unlikely. The realty is that Novell is going to be difficult to digest from a strategic standpoint. They have at least four divergent businesses and Linux only makes up about 20% of the company’s revenue. That means a private-equity firm taking the company private and restructuring may be the most viable option at this point.

[4] BBC America: Palast Hunts the Vultures [hedge funds are so unethical that some consider banning them]

Some vultures have feathers, but some have fancy offices and huge homes. Tonight, BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast follows the trail of one “vulture fund” chief, from a locked office door in New York to mud-brick houses in Africa.

How strange. When I arrive at the offices of Eric Hermann at hedge fund FH International, just outside New York City, the company’s corporate sign is unbolted from the wall and the suite number removed from the door.

But wait … I hear noises inside the office. Huh? I knock on the locked door and out steps the office building’s security manager.

Summary: iSoft buys TurboSystems and Novell is in a state of disarray

THE company known as TurboSystems lost its way after it had signed a patent deal with Microsoft. It sold out. According to the news (most of the coverage is in Asian languages), “iSoft Infrastructure Software Co Ltd, a Chinese software company, yesterday announced that it has bought a 51% stake in Japan’s TurboSystems, which belongs to Turbolinux and specially engaged in researching and developing the Linux technology, sources reported.” The headline says that “China’s iSoft buys Japan’s TurboSystems”, so it’s likely to be a complete acquisition (or a majority stake). There’s heaps of coverage in Chinese and it can hopefully draw an accurate picture.

Turbolinux seems like it’s over. Our last update on its terminal state showed that it was just one of those companies that lost GNU/Linux focus after Microsoft deals. What happens to Turbolinux right now is similar the story of Linspire-Xandros. Linspire got absorbed only to be put in its deathbed. This is okay because both Xandros and Linspire sold out to Microsoft, deciding to promote OOXML and to pay Microsoft for imaginary patents. The fewer of these companies that are left, the better. It’s down from 4 to just two now, Xandros and Novell.

“The problem of distributions that sell out to Microsoft is made more densely contained as their activities are ebbing.”Xandros said that it was more or less quiting its “Linux” direction and Novell too seems more focused on Microsoft technology (this one is from yesterday, posted by a Microsoft MVP who is a Novell vice president), just like Corel after the Microsoft deal [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

The problem of distributions that sell out to Microsoft is made more densely contained as their activities are ebbing. Novell is arguably the only sellout left now; it makes it a lot easier for us to track the problem with distributions whose use is harmful for GNU/Linux and Free software. Back in 2007 the problem had spread to four separate distributions, 3 of which merely followed the “Novell model”. That’s what makes Novell so unique, except for its size.

As for Novell itself, its SUSE efforts are shattered by the abandonment of Zonker (the latest among several managers like Levy, Jaffe and Friedman, who leave Novell as well). SUSE is crumbling and Michael Löffler looks for a new Community Manager:

In the meantime, I will be working with Andreas Jaeger and other Novell colleagues in marketing and engineering to cover openSUSE community relations activities.

The comments there are interesting too. Back in 2006 SUSE was probably the leading GNU/Linux distribution for the desktop (exceeding even Ubuntu). The deal with Microsoft turned Novell from hero to zero overnight. █

Summary: How four vendors of desktop GNU/Linux lost their direction after joining Microsoft’s software patents racket

LINSPIRE/LINDOWS is no more, as things went downhill after it had signed a patent deal with Microsoft. It sold out, so GNU/Linux users did not give it a second chance. As for Novell, it seems heavily focused these days on Silverlight and .NET. Moonlight and Mono are no longer even targeting GNU/Linux; Novell releases Mono products for platforms like the Apple iPhone, Mac OS X, even Windows [1, 2], with similar impact on the Nintendo Wii. Novell has essentially been transformed by the Microsoft deal just like Corel was.

“Perhaps there has not been high demand for their $50 Microsoft “patent protection” product for Debian derivatives.”Back in June, Xandros publicly revealed that is was not a GNU/Linux company anymore. “We are kind of getting away from being a Linux company” is the exact quote. Perhaps there has not been high demand for their $50 Microsoft "patent protection" product for Debian derivatives.

Well, based on this new press release (also here), Xandros walks further away from GNU/Linux, which is good news given what the company has done to GNU/Linux (and for Microsoft).

Xandros today announced the launch of Apps2Market, the first true cross-platform white label application store and m-commerce service. Apps2Market creates custom app store environments that are capable of reaching users with any digital content and applications in a growing, fragmented internet-connected device market.

Here is a short article about this.

Calling it the “first rue cross-platform white label applications store,” Apps2Market is aimed at creating an app store for any platform out there, so long as it’s Intel or ARM-based web-devices. The idea is that software vendors, automotive vendors, or any other manufacturers can create a marketplace custom-tailored for applications specific to the device they’re selling.

The last time we wrote about Turbolinux we showed that it too had lost its direction after the patent deal with Microsoft. Deals with Microsoft are a death knell. By contrast, companies like Mandriva, Red Hat and Canonical stayed focused. The conclusion is obvious. █

Summary: Moblin is a step forward for GNU/Linux, but software patents do not appear to be off the table

YESTERDAY we wrote about Moblin eschewing Silverlight, noting that it was (sometimes still is) based on SUSE [1, 2]. There is a complex history to it, which continues to present day.

As we explained two days ago, Intel is not a friend of GNU/Linux, but it must keep up with the competition, so Linux is not a platform that Intel can afford to ignore. Intel and Novell are quite close, as this very recent video of Guy Lunardi shows. Likewise, Intel is close to Microsoft, whose operating system it is constantly promoting these days; there is even collusion with Microsoft [1, 2, 3].

As we repeatedly showed, Dell had mysteriously joined the Microsoft/Novell deal very shortly before Microsoft’s patent attack began [1, 2]. Now we find this in The Inquirer:

Dell and Microsoft back Moblin

[...]

During her keynote at the show, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Software and Services Group Renee James was joined by Ian Ellison-Taylor, Microsoft’s general manager for Client Platforms and Tools to announce the collaboration.

This partnership is expected to help developers write applications once and have them run across Windows and Moblin devices, expanding the reach of Silverlight from the desktop and into mobile consumer electronic devices.

“We see this as a clear extension of our current efforts with Novell where we are building an open source implementation of Silverlight called Moonlight that is targeted at the broad range of Linux–based PCs,” said Ellison-Taylor.

Heise has some more details and Turbolinux, which also joined Microsoft’s Linux racket, is mentioned in various places. This does not necessarily suggest that there is consistency here when it comes to “Linux tax” in Moblin.

Throughout its lifetime, Moblin swapped desktop environments and distributions several times. After the Ubuntu shuffle came OpenSUSE, but also Fedora was put at the centre about a year ago, before Moblin was passed over to the Linux Foundation. According to this, Fedora is still at the centre, which is somewhat baffling and the information may be out of date.

Atom-based devices can run Windows but also Moblin, an open source custom Fedora-based Linux operating system targeted at netbooks, handhelds, smart phones and car computers. Intel started the Moblin project in 2007 then passed it over to the Linux Foundation.

Then there is this press release, which suggests that Ubuntu is somehow magically back under the name “Ubuntu Moblin Remix”. Are there now variants of Moblin, too?

Sam Dean argues about the effect of Moblin on ‘fragmentation’, further adding or at least showing that Moblin targets device types that are almost dominated by ARM.

If Moblin becomes a serious player in open source mobile operating systems, it will contribute to a great deal of fragmentation. Android is just gaining its stride, and heading beyond just smartphones, while Google is likely to put big marketing dollars behind Chrome OS. It’s already announced that it is talking to hardware partners.

At IDF today, the first edition of Moblin Linux for smartphones were demonstrated. They could lead to Intel chip-based smartphones.

There is more information about the smartphones outreach of Moblin, which confirms that to Intel it is mostly about expanding to more hardware, not necessarily replacing Windows. Intel also intends to offer software shops and there is nothing wrong with that. The most interesting report speaks about Moblin coming to full-blown desktops.

Intel has expanded the scope of Linux-based Moblin by porting the OS from netbooks to mobile devices and desktops, where it could compete with Microsoft’s Windows OS.

In its latest filing, Microsoft told its investors that it worried about Hewlett-Packard and Intel turning to Windows alternatives, namely GNU/Linux in this case. It sure looks like it is happening. So to characterise Intel’s work on Moblin as beneficial to Microsoft would be absurd. But that’s not the point; the question is, will Intel bend GNU/Linux in the direction of becoming Microsoft-taxed, just like SUSE? This is hopefully preventable as that would spell a defeat to the freedom of Free software in the mass market. █

Summary: Cliff Miller from TurboLinux is now at DeviceVM; a snapshot of what TurboLinux is currently up to

THE last vendor of desktop/server-targeted GNU/Linux to have signed a patent deal with Microsoft was TurboLinux. That was in late 2007 when Microsoft’s Linux racket [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] had already run low on steam.

We are still looking mostly at the “main four”, where hardware is not involved (so software patents only — if any — may apply): Novell, Xandros, Linspire, and TurboLinux. Linspire was folded onto Xandros, which simplifies the picture. As for TurboLinux, it is rarely mentioned anywhere these days. Some publications that speak foreign languages (usually from Asia) may still occasionally mention TurboLinux by name, whereas in the English-speaking press it is rare for TurboLinux to make it into large lists of vendors and sometimes a keyword-stuffed press release.

If one looks carefully at the news this week, it turns out that DeviceVM hired the founding CEO of TurboLinux, which means he is no longer at TurboLinux.

Miller, the founding CEO of TurboLinux, brings extensive software platform experience to the DeviceVM executive team.

San Jose, CA (Advertiser Talk) 28-Aug-2009 — DeviceVM, maker of the award-winning Splashtop® instant-on platform, today announced the appointment of Cliff Miller to the newly created position of Chief Strategy Officer. Miller will be responsible for corporate development and strategic customer and partner relationships.

Cliff Miller is widely recognized for his role in commercializing Linux in Asia. As the founder and CEO of TurboLinux, Miller created a leading platform for enterprise computing in Japan and China.

The item above is from the 28^th of August, but it seems to go back a few months, as far back as June. There are even prior observations. Here is the DeviceVM page.

“Microsoft has not signed any such patent deal in about 2 years. Leaving them behind would be very helpful indeed.”Is TurboLinux falling apart after its deal with Microsoft? Either way, this is one route to having Microsoft’s FUD squashed for good. Microsoft has not signed any such patent deal in about 2 years. Leaving them behind would be very helpful indeed.

TurboLinux is not very lively. There is hardly any news in their Web site at the moment. 5 news items span a period of 2 years and 40% of these is about the love affair with Microsoft. The flagship product at the moment — the one which appears at the front page — is about Windows. It says in the accompanying press release: “Because all users are unified under a single management scheme, business controls and compliance can be better adhered to, and because of the partnership between Turbolinux and Microsoft in jointly developing this new software with explicit patent permission, a safe and secure mixed Turbolinux and Microsoft Windows environment can be provided.”

Thank goodness for the “explicit patent permission”. It must mean that horrible things would happen without it, so only Turbolinux is the “approved” vendor. Novell has harnessed the same type of spiel. █

“Now [Novell is] little better than a branch of Microsoft”

–LinuxToday Managing Editor

Summary: A glimpse at distributors who pay Microsoft for GNU/Linux

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

FOR SUSE it has been an exceptionally quiet week, but SUSE Studio still generates a bit of a buzz and there are also reviews that are largely positive.

I just built my own Linux distribution through my browser. It can be ran as a Live CD or installed on your system. No, you did read that correctly. I actually used Firefox to build my own SUSE-based distro. Sometimes technology throws curveballs at us that are so unbelievable you’d have to read the statement several times to realize that you aren’t hallucinating. Do you think I’m writing a piece of science fiction? Enter SUSE Studio.

[...]

The Good:

* Amazing potential
* A ton of fun

The Bad:

* Builds take a while (that’s to be expected though)

Overall: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

There are other reviews that include more raves like this one. But Novell is behind it.

A Novell employee once told us that, in yesteryear when Novell’s marketing team were pushing brands faster than their coders were pushing software, Novell could easily have switched over to being a T-shirt manufacturing company. It seems their love of marketing hasn’t died out, because TuxRadar HQ recently accepted delivery of a suspicious box. Upon opening it, we found this:

Inside was a bag containing dozens of different parts, some plastic, others carefully cut foam. Next to that was a card pointing us towards the assembly instructions and, 10 minutes or so later, we were the, er, proud owners of one of these:

Great success! And even more fun than building a distro with SUSE Studio…

Further to last week's news about National Vision, there is this hyping up by Novell’s PR people and other SUSE promotion. Unrelated to this, there’s fun stuff such as this new video (“Hacking Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server”).

Novell’s PR department also brings back to life this old success story. Advocacy of SLE* can be found at the usual places and Novell’s own site has some too.

Another new video was nicely done and uploaded twice by Novell:

There is apparently no new business for SUSE though, just marketing and old stories.

Xandros

A mini review of Presto was published at IDG and the product was also mentioned in OStatic, which states:

We’ve written about Splashtop and instant-on compact Linux operating systems before. If you’re on a Windows PC or netbook, these can take you directly into a miniature operating system in about 15 seconds that can allow you to have access to IM, Skype, e-mail, the web and more. Presto is a free download you can get that takes you into a Xandros-based environment in seconds.

Some articles about renewed ASUS rumours mentioned Xandros, e.g.:

Asus may have pulled its experimental Google Android-powered netbook from sight after teasing journalists with it at Computex in June. But that doesn’t mean the company is sticking to Windows and Xandros Linux. Sascha at NetbookNews says a reliable source has told him that Asus will launch a netbook with Moblin Linux in October.

There are many similar posts in Russian and all sorts of other languages. There might be other ongoing attempts to put Xandros on small computers. From PC Pro:

Asus will deliver an Eee PC running the Moblin operating system in October, according to reports.

[...]

Though unconfirmed, the rumours aren’t too difficult to believe – Asus has long flirted with open source. Its original Eee PC ran a modified version of Xandros and its high-end motherboards are equipped with the Linux-based Splashtop “instant-on” OS. There were also reports it was ready to launch a netbook based on Android, though those have quietly fizzled out.

Moblin uses another variant of Ballnux, namely SUSE. There may as well be hidden patent tax. Also on Xandros (from an unrelated press release):

– Announced that Synchronoss has partnered with Xandros, the leader in providing seamless Windows-Linux interoperability and open source netbook software solutions. Together, the companies offer the first single-source solution to automate the activation and provisioning of netbook devices on 3G and 4G wireless networks.

Scalix was mentioned in a press release of its own.

Turbolinux

6 years before selling out to Microsoft, Turbolinux pondered an IPO. Here is a reminder of that.

Turbolinux (OSE :3777)
Having canceled its IPO in late 2001, Turbolinux eventually found its way to the stock market in September 2005 via an IPO on the Japanese Osaka Securities Exchange. Between those events, the Japanese Linux distributor was owned by Software Research Associates and then Livedoor. Turbolinux’s shares continue to be traded on the Osaka Securities Exchange.

Curiously, there has been no word about Manbo in ages. █

Summary: Many stories about SUSE and fewer ones about Xandros, Kyocera Mita, and Turbolinux

Novell has a little series about FOSS and lobbying. The fourth (and final) part of these videos was released several days ago and there is a lot of coverage of Studio/Appliance, so we’ll start with that.

SUSE/Studio/Appliance

Novell wrote about the SUSE Appliance Programme and eWeek reviewed Novell’s SUSE Studio, with a corresponding slideshow that it put here.

SUSE Studio is a Web-based service for creating software appliances on Novell’s family of SUSE Linux-based operating systems. SUSE Studio could prove very useful for any individual or organization that uses Novell’s Linux distributions by easing complex customization tasks.

This review was also promoted by a sister site of Ziff Davis/eWeek; two of them in fact.

Novell’s new SUSE Studio web-based service for creating software appliances on SUSE Linux has been favorably reviewed by eWEEK. While SUSE Studio does not offer the breadth of features of rPath’s rBuilder, Novell’s product is much easier at appliance creation, says the review.

In addition to a lot of coverage last week, we also have:

i. Roll your own Linux distribution with SUSE Studio

People have always been able to build their own Linux distributions. That’s one reason why there are over a hundred Linux distributions today. But, building them easily to do a particular job and with major vendor support … well, that’s not so easy. But now Novell has made it downright easy and — pay attention ISVs (independent software vendors) — they’ll also support your particular house-brand Linux when you take it to market.

ii. Running Linux in the browser

Most people are quite surprised to see an operating system boot up in their web browser. But for SUSE Studio, this is an essential part of the user experience. In this post, I’m going to tell you about my favorite feature in SUSE Studio: Testdrive. Why did we build it, and how does it work?

iii. SUSE Studio

Last week we launched our SUSE Studio service announcing its 1.0 status. It’s been an honor to be part of the team behind it. I mean what other project uses javascript, flash, java, ruby, perl, mysql and git and at the same time qemu, kvm, libext2fs or fontforge, inkscape and blender?

iv. SUSE Appliance Program WebYaST alpha demo

v. Build your own Linux with SUSE Studio

vi. SUSE’s Amazing Software Vending Machine

vii. Novell Touts ISV Support for SUSE Appliance Program

viii. Novell unveils SUSE app tools

Here comes BitRock again (we mentioned the accompanying press release last week): “BitRock introduces virtual appliances for open source applications”

The company said that the BitNami application appliances showcase its new virtual appliance creation service, an extension of the Custom Stacks Service it has been offering to software vendors for the past four years. The company has reportedly developed technology to interface with SUSE Studio and generate virtual appliances from BitRock-created application stacks.

They could also use rPath, which has done this for ages.

Here is some new video coverage of SUSE Studio.

Comments can be found in Slashdot where Francis (of OpenSUSE) appears to have submitted the news. Novell’s PR people spoke about it also.

Check out this podcast with Novell Senior Marketing Manager Matt Richards who discusses the recent SUSE Appliance Program announcement.

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

There was nothing particularly interesting here other than this announcement about National Vision putting SLE* on their registers.

Novell today announced that National Vision Inc., one of the largest optical retailers in the United States, plans to use SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise Point of Service to improve the performance, stability and uptime of the network of 5,000 point-of-sale devices within its stores. With more than 500 retail locations in 44 states, including America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses and Vision Centers at select Wal-Mart stores, SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service will provide National Vision with an agile, reliable and cost-effective operating system.

Reuters has this copy of the press release and TMCNet is rewriting the press release, as usual. No news outlets have covered this seemingly important development.

National Public Radio has this little tiny portion about Novell in sub-notebooks.

ARMSTRONG: You hit it dead on the head. I mean, I’m holding the Novell Netbook in here, and you’re absolutely right. These are not really built. I mean, there’s no CD-ROM on this for me to really install software. So this is perfect for using Web applications. You hear the term cloud computing and things of that nature all the time. This is what they’re talking about, being able to then run programs and even, to some extent, leave your data out on the Web.

In the New York Times, the roots of Open-Xchange is a subject which was brought up towards the end.

The Open-Xchange folks have deep technical knowledge and have as good of a chance as anyone at getting the technology underpinnings right. Mr. Geck, for example, crafted SuSE’s Linux server product, making it a real force in the operating system market. (Novell now owns the SuSE software.)

There are a couple of articles about Novell signing OEM partnerships, namely:

i. Novell to Sign OEM Partnerships with ISVs

Novell, a global software corporation specializing in enterprise operating systems such as SUSE Linux, will sign OEM contracts with ISVs for its new offerings on SUSE Studio. The vendor last week released SUSE Studio, a web-based service for creating software appliances on SUSE Linux, in India. With these OEM partners, Novell wants to tap the banking and the government segments, chiefly the e-governance projects.

ii. Novell signing OEM contracts with ISV’s for new offerings

Novell signing OEM contracts with ISV’s for new offerings – A global software company, Novell specialized in enterprise OS such as SUSE Linux will be signing up OEM contracts with ISVs for new offerings on SUSE studio.

The Register wrote about wares that support SUSE, namely:

i. SGI chases Cray with baby cluster

SGI has certified Windows HPC Server 2008, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and 11 – including the SGI ProPack 6 math library extensions for SLES – and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 for the CloudRacks, and more than 50 popular applications across the HPC spectrum can run on the iron as well.

ii. Can Liquid Computing ride Cisco’s California coattails?

As far as operating systems go, the LiquidIQ box can support Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, Novell SUSE Linux 10, and Sun Microsystems Solaris 10. Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor is supported, as well, as are older ESX Server 3.0 and 3.5 releases from VMware. Oracle’s clone of RHEL and its clone of Xen are also supported. And like Cisco with its California blade boxes, LiquidIQ has a tight partnership with NetApp for iSCSI storage.

SUSE is quite big on IBM's mainframes and according to this, Novell leaves the door open to Windows programs.

Recent announcements by Novell and Mantissa Software suggest it is possible to run many Windows applications, without code change, on the mainframe.

Also regarding mainframes, there is this new interview which includes:

Q: What’s our long-term OS outlook?

A: The core OS to focus on for mainframe virtualization is Linux, with Novell SUSE and Red Hat leading the pack. Linux has a nine-year track record on big iron and multiple options for deployment. I/O volume and integration between Linux and legacy mainframe apps are the two main considerations.

[...]

Q: Do we need a training plan?

A: Yes. CA issued a survey last year that reported 72% of organizations have mainframe pros eligible for retirement. So how hard is it to migrate and retrain staff? We’d equate it to moving from Novell NetWare to Microsoft Active Directory.

On virtual SUSE servers:

One large German automaker, for example, started its virtualization effort with Windows but now is increasing the number of SUSE-based virtual machines, at least partly due to the availability of Linux-based enterprise applications, he said. Hardware improvements in this year’s chipsets have boosted virtualization across all platforms by reducing memory latency, which had been a deterrent for running virtualized enterprise applications, he said. Input/output and CPU latencies were addressed in previous hardware upgrades, he said.

Virtualisation is sometimes made synonymous with ‘clouds’, so this one is also worth mentioning very quickly.

Novell, Dell, Microsoft — in fact, anyone who is anyone with a stake in operating systems has been mentioned at least once in conjunction with a cloud operating system.

Xandros

There was a fair bit here in terms of density, with Presto receiving a mention in:

i. Fast Boot Your PC With Xandros Presto

Presto is a fast boot Linux operating system from Xandros. It provides one of the easiest ways to dual boot Windows with Linux. Presto is intended to be a complement to Microsoft Windows rather than a replacement. What makes Presto a bit of an oddball in the Linux world is than it can only be installed in Windows XP or Vista. It requires an NTFS partition and automatically creates an entry in the Windows boot loader upon installation. There is no way to install it without having Windows on your PC first.

ii. Xandros Presto Linux review

There are a few other issues to watch out for. Machines using nVidia graphics drivers are said to boot more slowly (a driver issue out of Xandros’ control) and anyone using a wireless keyboard will have problems selecting it from the command line in place of XP, as Xandros hasn’t figured out how to load the driver early enough.

iii. DeviceVM brings search to its ‘instant-on’ Splashtop software

San Jose, Calif.-based DeviceVM might also find itself competing with Google next year, when the search giant releases Chrome OS , a fast, lightweight operating system aimed at getting users onto the web — if Chrome OS is everything Google promises, it could make software like Splashtop less necessary. Meanwhile, competitors like Xandros are also announcing new products . But Bottoms says Splashtop has the advantage of already being installed on 10 million computers, due to partnerships with HP, Acer, Lenovo, ASUS, Sony, and LG.

EApps are something that was mentioned last week because it relates directly to Xandros. TMCNet is pretending to have an article by warping the press release on EApps and another press release mentions Xandros very briefly.

– Announced that Synchronoss has partnered with Xandros, the leader in providing seamless Windows-Linux interoperability and open source netbook software solutions. Together, the companies offer the first single-source solution to automate the activation and provisioning of netbook devices on 3G and 4G wireless networks.

Turbolinux/Kyocera Mita

Kyocera Mita signed a patent deal with Microsoft and it is mentioned in this new review, which also mentions Turbolinux.

We tested with the Windows XP drivers, but support is also available for OS X 10.2 and above, and for UNIX and Linux in various configurations.

In general, Asian vendors that joined Microsoft’s Linux racket are scarcely mentioned in the English-speaking press, so it makes sense not to worry so much about them. Novell and Xandros are the key problems right now. █

IT HAS BEEN an exceptionally quiet week for Novell, but more news about SUSE (and OpenSUSE in particular) will be caught up with next week.

OpenSUSE

Heise published a list of GNU/Linux distributions and OpenSUSE was one of them.

The only other real news is OpenSUSE 11.1 being added to click2try’s catalogue. Then there is this blog post about SUSE Studio.

Some months ago I casually signed up for a beta program online that seemed to mix cloud computing with Linux distributions. This program being SUSE Studio. I was impressed by the concept and I took it for a brief whirl. It is quite powerful and apart from adding packages from the regular openSUSE repositories of the latest stable release version, you can add/remove your own repos. Furthermore, you can customize the artwork and share this custom distribution with the world. You can watch this video to see how to use SUSE Studio to build a custom Linux distribution based on openSUSE.

SLES

There was also not much about SUSE. In the context of GNU/Linux servers, the Var Guy mentioned Novell as follows:

Rewind to the 1990s, and Microsoft wisely evangelized Windows 95’s connectivity to Novell NetWare servers. Fast forward to the present, and Microsoft should do the same with Linux servers and open source.

Earlier on we mentioned the US Postal Service moving to Free software, but the role of SUSE was not mentioned at the time. Here it is:

The Postal Service is moving 1,300 Sun Solaris midrange servers to a Hewlett-Packard Linux environment, using Novell’s SUSE Linux on the mainframe and distributed computing platforms to forge greater interoperability between the two environments.

In an article about IBM, SUSE is mentioned very briefly at the end alongside its main rivals.

IBM will begin shipping the Istanbul variants of the System x3755 server on August 26. Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Microsoft Windows Server, and Sun Microsystems Solaris 10 are all supported on this box.

This is nothing of significance, but it’s the little that could be found.

Turbolinux

Turbolinux is one of the 4 server/desktop companies that signed a Linux patent deal with Microsoft. Turbolinux seems quite irrelevant in English-speaking parts of the world, but in Asia it is sometimes used and it got some scarce attention in the English press, even a press release this week. There is usually nothing at all about them, not even a mention. █

OpenSUSE

FOR OpenSUSE at the least, the past week has been an exceptionally quiet one, but events from the previous week got posted in the OpenSUSE Web site, namely:

* openSUSE@FOSDEM2009
* HP Builds on the openSUSE Education Project
* Masim Sugianto: Tutorial : VirtualBox on openSUSE 11.1 Part 2
* openSUSE Forums: How to install KDE 4.2
* Build maemo-apps with openSUSE BuildService ? – It works !

The biggest event in the past week was probably the availability of KDE 4.2 for OpenSUSE.

The KDE Project released KDE 4.2 on Tuesday, and of course openSUSE packages were available in time for the release. If you missed the pointer from the KDE announcement info page, you can get your KDE 4.2 fix in a number of ways.

There are a few other OpenSUSE HOWTOs of interest and also this development notice which relates to openSUSE 11.2.

The openSUSE Factory distribution is our permanent development distribution. Currently used to develop openSUSE 11.2. We want to make the factory distribution better usable for everybody to get a better testing for next release.
One of the complaints we received in the last years is that the huge amount of newly built packages makes it hard for people to keep their system up to date, simply due to the time needed for downloading and installing the packages.

OpenSUSE was listed here as a GNU/Linux distribution option which is “decent”.

My first port of call was OpenSUSE, a distro I have used on and off over the years; it was in fact my first serious introduction to Linux. The problem with it was that Fedora had installed a disk partitioning scheme that the SUSE installer couldn’t deal with, and it gave up with a cryptic error message when I tried installing it. The only solution was to transfer all my files to another computer, completely erase all my partitions and install afresh, which I did. The network problems persisted, and (unlike Fedora) it could not install the drivers for my ATi graphics card. So, that had to go as well.

SLED

The main development was to do with Dell’s thin clients. From the press release:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client to be preloaded on new Dell OptiPlex thin client devices

Novell today announced that Dell will preload SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client, the market’s leading enterprise-quality Linux thin client operating system, onto Dell’s new OptiPlex FX160 thin client device. The OptiPlex FX160 is part of Dell’s diverse portfolio of Flexible Computing Solutions, which was introduced in October 2008. SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client from Novell in conjunction with Dell’s Optiplex FX160 will help customers dramatically lower costs, while simplifying IT from the desktop to the data center.

Among the early coverages:

This week Novell announced they’ve signed a deal that will see Dell using SUSE Linux Enterprise on their new OptiPlex FX160 thin clients. This move means corporate IT departments will be able to simplify IT at a lower cost than ever before.

More analysis indicates that it goes beyond just the thin client:

Well, well, how about that Dell? In a landmark decision, Dell announced that it has penned a deal to use Novell’s SUSE Linux in its data centers to power its new OptiPlex FX 160 thin client systems. Wow. Dell is doing this to save money and simplify its IT infrastructure and requirements.

This was covered in:

• Dell Partners with Novell in Thin Client Distribution
• Dell preloading Novell’s SUSE Linux on thin clients
• Dell to roll out OptiPlex with SUSE Linux
• Novell: Dell Offers Enterprise Linux Operating System from Novell to Address Growing Market for Thin Clients

SUSE, SLES

On the server side, there was some progress too.

SoftLayer Adds SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

[...]

On-demand virtual data center services provider SoftLayer Technologies (www.softlayer.com) has added SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell (www.novell.com) to its portfolio of server operating systems, giving all customers an enterprise-grade distribution of the open source Linux OS for no additional cost.

The Indian press referred to Novell’s Linux a little more generally.

Bangalore, Feb. 4 The economic slowdown is prompting companies to migrate even their mission critical systems to open source platforms such as Linux, a move that would help them cut costs, consolidate and run their IT infrastructure more efficiently.

Novell Inc, an enterprise infrastructure software and services vendor, expects more customers to migrate their mission critical applications onto Linux.

“Linux has seen most of growth coming from on the edge Unix processes. And, now, customers have started shifting the mission critical systems to Linux. That’s where we have focused aggressively as a company,” said Mr Ronald W. Hovsepian, President and CEO, Novell.

It’s not so clear what version of SUSE is used here.

Digitar has been using Novell’s (NASDAQ: NOVL) SUSE Linux software on its HP (NYSE: HPQ) servers since it opened its doors. However, the company tried the Linux storage subsystem a few years ago with unsatisfactory results.

“At that time, we found the Linux storage subsystem to lack reliability and the Linux Volume Manager (LVM) to be slow,” said Williams. “Back then, I wasn’t familiar with OpenSolaris and I must confess that I was anti-Solaris, as I had found it difficult to use while at college. I preferred the Solaris kernel but believed Linux to be more user-friendly.”

Ditto for this one:

Areas of expertise are Linux, High Availability, Virtualization, and Backup and cross platform solutions. Vendors include: Novell, Acronis, Parallels, Coyote Point, Avira and Propalms, among others.

Xandros

The presence of Scalix at an exhibition was mentioned last week and here is another press release (also in MSNBC).

Scalix, the premier Linux email, calendaring and messaging company, today announced that key staff will showcase powerful hosting solutions that enable email, messaging and group calendaring capabilities, including rich Outlook support, without the expense of Exchange, at the Parallels Summit 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada, February 3-4. The Parallels Summit features in-depth technical, business, and product sessions that focus on Cloud Computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Automation and Virtualization.

Turbolinux

There is almost nothing going on there except for occasional advisories and responses to them. █

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

Novell’s PR people spoke about H-P’s small computer that may run SLED.

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, HP unveiled its latest netbook, the Mini 2140 Notebook PC, which is expected to be available later this month. According to early reports here and here, this latest HP device offers users a sleek, light-weight, durable notebook with long-life battery power.

Here is a new hands-on experience with the Mini 2140 unit.

Luckily, HP also offers Windows XP and XP Professional on the Mini 2140, as well as SUSE Linux.

When it comes to SLES, Novell made some noise with a press release (also here and here).

Novell today announced independent home builder Keller Homes has consolidated its Web servers and eliminated downtime with SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise Server from Novell. Ranked as one of the top 10 builders nationwide in customer satisfaction, Keller Homes has a variety of mission-critical Web sites, including its public site and an extranet used by hundreds of vendors to track materials, schedules and payments associated with customized home projects. After Keller Homes participated on the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show, its Web servers received an exponential increase in activity, averaging 3,000 hits per hour, with a peak of more than 6,000 hits in a single hour.

There was no visible coverage fueled by the press release, but over in India, Novell’s SUSE got it some notability.

Bangalore-based Inflow Technologies, a distributor for storage, security and networking products, recently singed a strategic agreement with Novell, a software provider, to distribute full line of products throughout India and Sri Lanka.

This agreement will cover all Novel SuSE Linux, identity and security management systems, resource management and workgroup products for SMEs and corporate.

Linspire

Linspire — at least as a company — is no more, but its people are spotted assuming new careers.

Holly Frisque is relocating back to San Diego after serving as the director of administration for the Illinois Casually Company in Rock Island, Ill. Previously, Frisque held leadership positions at Gizmo5 Technologies, Inc. and Linspire, Inc., two software development companies in San Diego.

Xandros

Xandros devoured Linspire and Scalix, which is mentioned in this article about replacing Excahnge.

The enterprise version is not free (although the Community Edition is). I appreciate the fact that Scalix has a paid enterprise version because the fact of the matter is that enterprise cannot run solely on community supported stuff. Enterprise is a business after all, and where there’s money to be made, money has to be spent. Paying for an enterprise-class messaging platform is worth the money.

Turbolinux

Nothing from Turbolinux this time around other than articles in Japanese and some security advisories. █

FOR NOVELL’S SUSE Linux side, the past week has been a quiet one if the trade press is any indication. Among the little that existed there was this eWeek article (LinuxDevices) about the H-P Mini 2140 with SLED 10.

HP announced a netbook targeting “business applications” and “instructional use,” and available with SUSE Linux. The HP Mini 2140 features a 10.1 screen up to 1366 x 768 pixels, Atom N270 processor, 160GB hard disk drive or 80GB SSD (solid state drive), plus an ExpressCard/54 slot.

This miniature notebook received a score of 8.6 out of 10 from a Web site which rarely covers GNU/Linux.

The HP Mini 2140 keeps everything we loved about the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC—the sturdy aluminum shell, the comfortable keyboard, the compact dimensions—and fixes its shortcomings (SuSe Linux OS, smallish screen). The result is as near a perfect netbook as current technology will allow, at a $499 price that’s right in line with lesser rivals in the class.

Joe the “Var Guy” had a conversation with John Dragoon from Novell.

In this episode, Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon responds to five key questions about the company’s SUSE Linux strategies, broader software efforts and partner initiatives.

There is a copy of it here. At one point during this chat/interview, Joe diverts the discussion towards SUSE only to discover that IDC estimates GNU/Linux growth at 20%, compared to SUSE at 33%. It puts things in perspective, assuming IDC’s figures mean much (they most certainly don’t because the people at IDC intentionally avoid measuring the right things).

Dragoon declines to comment upon the request for him to break down — individually — the Microsoft-granted revenue, thus separating it from the rest.

On a technical level, SUSE (the SLE* series) was hardly mentioned except for in some press releases about LinMin, which supports SUSE. Here is some of the latest publicity about it:

• LinMin™ Introduces Bare Metal Provisioning 5.3 with One-Click Provisioning Role Creation and Support for the latest Linux Releases from Red Hat, Novell, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE and CentOS
• LinMin™ Introduces Bare Metal Provisioning 5.3 for Latest Linux Releases
• LinMin™ Introduces Bare Metal Provisioning 5.3

Turbolinux

Cloudmark puts in place a new director with some background or history at Turbolinux. From their press release.

Prior to Sendmail, he served as president of several leading technology companies, including Turbolinux and Object Design.

That’s about all there was to see. Turbolinux still appears in articles, but they are not in English; it’s just far-eastern languages about 80% of the time. █

A WIDE variety of “Enterprise” releases from Novell have received some coverage over the past week.

SLEPS

Sherwin-Williams becomes a big client of Novell after the fall of Circuit City, which was a big Novell/SUSE client.

Novell today announced that the nation’s largest specialty retailer of paint, stains, coatings, wall coverings and sundry items will be standardizing on SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise Point of Service (POS) as the operating system for its retail store multi-function desktop/registers and in-store servers. As a global retailer of some of the most popular paint brands, Sherwin-Williams has more than 3,000 retail stores in 50 states, Canada and Latin America. SUSE Linux Enterprise POS will provide the paint retailer with a secure, cost-effective and reliable operating system.

Henry and the guys at LinuxDevices covered this as well.

Paint retail giant Sherwin-Williams announced it will standardize on Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service (SLEPS) for its multi-function desktop registers and in-store servers. More than 3,000 retail stores will install systems running the Linux distribution, which is optimized for point of sale/service (POS) operations, say the companies.

SLED

While it’s Ubuntu that is commonly mentioned in IBM’s latest push on the desktop, Novell is not left out in the cold… not just yet anyway.

In August, IBM said it had reconfigured its Lotus productivity and collaboration software so it would be easier to bundle with Linux distributions like Red Hat, Ubuntu and Novell Inc.’s SUSE Linux.

SLES

The following is something that we covered last week. It’s about supercomputing (the very high end).

Novell today announced that the New Zealand Supercomputing Centre (NZSC) has chosen one of its PlateSpin® workload management products to automate the management of its on-demand computing infrastructure. Together with partner InterGrid, the NZSC hosts high-intensity computing projects for oil companies, bio-pharmaceutical enterprises, movie production houses and universities.

Lenovo

Further on the subject of SLES, Lenovo has a word to share about ThinkServers running SUSE.

Jason Tan, Lenovo’s Server Product manager for Asia-Pacific and Japan, said ThinkServer line is available with Microsoft Windows Server or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell.

“With ThinkServer, Lenovo delivers exceptionally engineered hardware and easy-to-use software all developed specifically for the SMB customer,” said Vicky Agorilla, country general manager of Lenovo Philippines.

This is also covered here.

OES

This was the only major new announcement. Here is the press release:

Novell today announced the availability of Novell(R) Open Enterprise Server 2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (http://www.novell.com/products/openenterpriseserver) with Domain Services for Windows*, a feature that enables seamless integration with Microsoft* Active Directory*. For the first time, customers can use Novell Open Enterprise Server to manage users and group policies through the Microsoft Management Console, thus simplifying administration, reducing costs, and leveraging their existing investment in Novell technology.

This appears also here in Trading Markets and followed by an actual report.

Novell Inc (Nasdaq:NOVL), a US IT technology company, announced on 3 December that its Open Enterprise Server Pack 1 (SP1) is now available.

From LinuxPlanet, which is now edited by Carla:

To understand the “what” of Novell’s Open Enterprise Server (OES) you first have to understand the “why”. Novell NetWare turned 25 this year and still has a significant number of users. Its success was largely based on doing a few things well– file and print sharing. Other capabilities were added over the years, not the least of which was Novell Directory Services (NDS) with the introduction of NetWare 4 in 1993.

[...]

OES SP1 represents the first time that NetWare users dependent on AFP and CIFS have a viable option for migrating to Linux. It also provides more user-friendly tools for migrating complex enterprise installations. If you still have NetWare servers in your environment, you’ll want to take a hard look at this release of OES as a way out.

SLES 10 includes Xen virtualization, and Novell fully supports running virtualized NetWare on a Linux box if you must keep a NetWare server around. ‘Server consolidation has proven to save money, both on installation and operation costs. Novell hopes their NetWare customers will choose to stick with the company and switch to the Linux platform as a long-term solution.

Turbolinux

Now much here apart from articles in foreign languages and some security advisories. █

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

SUSE has reappeared in some familiar products such as Wyse’s thin clients, which have a new line announced.

In September 2008, Wyse partnered with Novell to provide the joint delivery of Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise. Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise lets end-users to maximize productivity and minimize training costs due to the easy-to-use graphical user interface with cross-platform multimedia support, USB peripheral support and flexible hardware options.

IBM’s occasional preference for SUSE is still showing:

For customers who want to run Windows applications on the machine, IBM has embedded the shareware VMware Server hypervisor, which runs atop the modified SLES instance on the flash drive and allows a Windows guest to be put on the X64 processor inside the box.

IBM developerWorks also has this new resource serving as a RHEL-SLES comparator.

Most system administrators planning to install Linux® on IBM® System p® eventually run into an important question: Which Linux distribution should I install? This article compares two distributions from Red Hat and Novell, and weighs the pros and cons of each. We’ll discuss Linux on POWER (LoP), the history of both distributions, the relationship IBM has with them, and the factors that should go into your decision-making process. We’re also going to compare and contrast what it takes to create logical volumes on SLES and RHEL.

Here is another new sighting of SUSE.

Longtime PPM customer Novell, the provider of SUSE Linux Enterprise, has benefited from hands-on testing of CA Clarity PPM v12 as part of the CA beta program.

Linspire

Michael and Kevin are still fighting like children, using lawyers and disparaging remarks/images. Linspire itself is no more, so it hardly matters at this stage. It’s as relevant to GNU/Linux as the Reiser murder trial.

Here is another new article that speaks of Linspire’s 15 minutes of fame, which are long gone.

One of the biggest legal battles Microsoft has fought was against software rival Linux over its operating system Lindows.

In 2004, after a long battle Linux changed the name of its software to Linspire.

Turbolinux

There is hardly anything in English, but Turbolinux continues to make an appearance in some places, even the English-speaking press that only mentions Turbolinux as a matter of history

Beckman has also worked in industry, founding a research laboratory in 2000 in Santa Fe sponsored by Turbolinux Inc., which developed the world’s first dynamic provisioning system for large clusters and data centers. The following year, he became vice president of Turbolinux’s worldwide engineering efforts, managing development offices in the US, Japan, China, Korea and Slovenia.

This is nothing major, just a relocation of people. Their team leader leaned towards Windows, so the company seems like a lost cause. █

ALTHOUGH it is hard to crticise Intel when the context is GNU/Linux, the company’s crimes are known to many and even recognised in several continents. For those who are new to Intel’s antitrust situation and kickbacks, we provide some links at the top.

As a little bit of background, Intel recently rejected — or in other words thrown away — Ubuntu in favour of Fedora inside Moblin (Intel’s mobile Linux stack). Here is some exemplary coverage.

Dirk Hohndel, Intel’s director of Linux and open-source strategy, told The Reg there was no falling out with Ubuntu, but the move to Fedora was a technical decision based on the desire to adopt RPM for package management.

It turns out now that Intel has just welcomed the Microsoft-tied Novell and Microsoft-tied Turbolinux (both use RPM). This translates to an approach towards Microsoft ‘patent tax’. Here is the announcement about Novell.

Novell to offer Linux-based solutions optimized for Intel* Atom* Processor-based netbooks; will deliver the best user experience yet through Moblin

[...]

Moblin.org is an open source community for sharing software technologies to create an untethered computing experience across Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, and embedded devices using computing hardware based on Intel* Atom* Processor Technology. Novell’s focus is on effectively meeting the requirements of hardware vendors choosing the Intel Atom processor technology for their netbooks to deliver solutions with greatly accelerated boot performance, longer battery life and an optimized experience for netbook users.

“The Moblin open source project brings a fused group of partners together to create the most optimized netbook and nettop solution yet,” said Roger Levy, vice president open platform solutions at Novell.

That’s the very same guy who brags about intellectual property "peace of mind", i.e. payments to Microsoft for imaginary software patents. So here we have a combination of two close Microsoft partners, which engage in exclusionary and collusive conduct with a monopolist. This spoils the fun at a software level and hardware level alike. And according to OStatic, it’s the same with Turbolinux, which is part of Microsoft’s pro-OOXML crusade and software patents campaign [1, 2] (against Free software). OStatic also reports on the Manbo (Mandriva-Turbolinux) situation.

Mandriva and Turbolinux Join Moblin, Create Manbo Labs

[...]

What’s particularly interesting about this announcement is once the Manbo engineers create these core components, they are delivered to the two sponsoring projects for further development, add-ons, and customizations. Mandriva and Turbolinux have hinted that more partnerships in Manbo Labs are on the horizon.

I warmly recommend Mandriva, but knowing the dangers of swapping code with Microsoft partners, Mandriva hopefully knows what it’s doing. Sharing code with Turbolinux, as opposed to just RPMs, would not be a good idea, but Mandriva reassured to us that there is no problem here [1, 2, 3, 4]. █

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

Not much has happened, despite this one particular accumulation taking almost two weeks (I was away from the Internet). Here is one video that was uploaded to YouTube very recently. It shows SUSE Studio at VMworld.

The following short post was right in pointing out that Novell is neglecting the desktop.

SUSE has had some success on the desktop, but Novell, its parent company, remains chiefly concerned with the server market.

We previously discussed possible reasons for Novell to distance itself from Microsoft’s key turf.

Here is yet another belated article about Userful, which was mentioned in recent digests [1, 2] because the solution uses SUSE. The author is Kristin Shoemaker.

The Userful Desktop software is a custom Linux distribution with the Userful Multiplier built in. It contains the usual suspects in open source applications: GIMP, Firefox (and Epiphany), OpenOffice.org, and a number of educational applications geared towards the younger crowd (such as TuxPaint and gCompris).

It’s worth pointing out that Kristin Shoemaker publishes quite a few short articles about SUSE and Novell. It can’t be a total coincidence.

Here is another belated coverage of the Wyse/SUSE relationship. It comes from a Web site which is already known for its Novell bias (affinity).

Wyse Technology and Novell announced the joint delivery of Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise, the next-generation of Linux operating system designed for thin computing environments and available only on Wyse desktop and mobile thin client devices.

[...]

Meanwhile, the partnership between Wyse and Novell was born of the Linux market growth, he explained.

Novell’s PR department wrote about SUSE and SAP.

Companies in India are making good use of SUSE Linux Enterprise Priority Support for SAP Applications.

There was also this PR about SUSE, SAP, and some other involved companies.

All PAN-supported hardware — including solutions from Egenera and its partners, Dell and Fujitsu Siemens Computers — are now certified by Red Hat and Novell for Red Hat® Enterprise Linux and SUSE® Linux Enterprise on both Intel® and AMD® processors.

It’s truly a shame that a SLES/SLED beta contained that notorious kernel bug, but there we go…

Intel e1000e user? Don’t install the new SUSE betas

[...]

The problem is described as “a serious issue with the potential to damage the network card in a way that it cannot be used any longer”. Intel and Novell are said to be working on the issue. Other Intel network cards, including the e1000 (without the -e postfix) are unaffected.

Following that recent post about Sirius Corporation edging out Novell, there is also some consolation from Glyn Moody.

There are two other aspects of the official announcement that are worth remarking upon. First, is the fact that Novell, contrary to some earlier reports, was not included on BECTA’s list of the chosen few. At one level, that’s a pity, since it would have been good to have had more than open source supplier. On the other hand, many – including myself – have their doubts about Novell’s commitment to the principles of free software, however much it may be happy to make money from it.

Novell’s agreement with Microsoft, and its pushing of technologies that are encumbered with patents is extremely dangerous: there is a real risk that the open source world will wake up one day to find that a large segment of its user base has deployed code fatally tainted by intellectual monopolies.

Against this background, then, Novell’s absence from the list is probably a good thing. What Sirius may lack in terms of clout or brand recognition compared to Novell, it more than makes up for through its adherence to the core principles of free software.

There will probably be no SUSE in UK education. Sirius is not a fan of Novell, to say the very least.

Xandros

Not much going on here except for this review from James Turner.

Xandros will no doubt offend Linux purists, both by the tight integration of commercial software into its business model and by the lack of features such as Gnome. On the other hand, for a Linux newbie who wants a Windows-like experience, it may make a reasonable choice.

This showed up elsewhere, including PCAdvisor, PCWorld (also IDG), ITWorld (IDG), and the New York Times.

Xandros was also mentioned in this instructional article.

Some commercial Linux distributions, such as Xandros, have created integrated package managers that double as storefronts to sell you commercial software. You may need to scroll down a bit to see the free software available for the distribution, but you should be able to find it in short order.

Scalix, which is now part of Xandros, had this press release about Japan.

Scalix, the award-winning Linux email, calendaring and messaging company, today announced the availability of group calendaring and scheduling features attuned to the way teams coordinate their workflow. A new “Overlay Calendar” feature in the Scalix Web Access (SWA) client makes it easy to organize events and appointments in multiple user and public calendars. A new “Calendar Planning Mode” view displays multiple calendars in a single planning sheet to facilitate team scheduling and resource allocation.

TurboLinux

Is Epson still playing with TurboLinux? It turns out that it does.

Epson presenta su nuevo ordenador de escritorio para el hogar digital denominado Endeavor LX7900, el cual se caracteriza por incorporar el sistema operativo TurboLinux Client 2008. Detalles técnicos del nuevo Epson Endeavor LX7900: Microprocesador Intel Celeron 430, Pentium Dual Core E2200, Core 2 Duo E8600 o Core 2 Quad Q6600 2Gb de Memoria RAM DDR2 Disco duro de [...]

There is some more information here, but it’s not in English. █

Wyse

The most significant press release (for Novell) was probably this one about Wyse.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing, and Novell today announced the joint delivery of Wyse Enhanced SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise, the next-generation of Linux* operating system designed for thin computing environments and available only on Wyse desktop and mobile thin client devices. Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise is a powerful combination of Wyse’s extensive experience in thin computing and the ease of use, flexibility and security of SUSE Linux Enterprise. Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise will be available pre-loaded on the Wyse thin client devices in Q4 2008.

There were many short reports about this, including:

1. Wyse and Novell announce delivery of Linux Thin Client based on SUSE Linux Enterprise

Wyse Technology, a developer of thin client systems, and Novell Inc (Nasdaq:NOVL) jointly announced on 16 September the delivery of Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise, available for Wyse desktop and mobile thin client devices.

2. Novell and Wyse develop Linux thin client

Novell has partnered with thin-client computing provider Wyse Technology to jointly develop a Linux operating system for desktop and mobile thin client devices.

3. Thin client leader adds Linux option

The world’s largest thin-client vendor has taken aggressive steps in the fast-growing market for Linux-based thin clients. Wyse has partnered with Novell to create “Wyse-enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise,” a virtualization-ready thin-client OS expected to ship in Q4, pre-loaded on four N50L mobile thin client models.

Palamida helped generate some scare with this article, which also mentions Wyse very briefly.

Wyse, which today announced a deal with Novell to distribute Suse Linux Enterprise on its thin clients, has had to tread carefully with its proprietary code as it has deepened its reliance on open source components.

A known Microsoft shill, Maureen O’Gara [1, 2], wrote about this too.

The operating system includes the GNOME desktop, Firefox browser and a terminal emulator as well as pre-built technologies for connecting to thin computing architectures such as the VDM client from VMware, the ICA client from Citrix and the RDP client from Microsoft.

It’s interesting to see how the Web site appends her old (and very biased) articles about Hans Reiser (twice even) as though it’s trying to make a statement.

SLED

Moving on, here you have a newly-uploaded video showing the SLED-powered MSI Wind U90.

SUSE also earns a bit of a rave in the following new blog post.

Novell divides its SUSE Linux products into Enterprise and Personal. This is essentially the distinction between the versions that are sold with a paid-for software maintenance system and those that are not. The Personal category now consists of just one product, SUSE Linux Professional. (In the past there was a cut-down version of SUSE Linux Professional known as SUSE Linux Personal; with the release of 9.3 this product was dropped. Do not confuse Novell’s customer category Personal with SUSE’s former product SUSE Linux Personal.)

Interop

The gathering in New York was not focused on GNU/Linux specifically, but some people span it that way.

Novell CEO Ronald Hovsepian said Wednesday that he uses a Linux-based desktop while on the job and that Novell’s use of open source software internally “has saved the company a lot of money.” Hovsepian made the comments as he delivered a keynote presentation at the Interop technology conference and exhibition in New York.

It’s hard to believe that an entire article was written just to say that the head of a company which developers GNU/Linux also eats some of its dog food, so to speak. On the other hand…

More seriously now, people in Linux Today have already commented on this.

it is the least they can do… it would be completely disappointing but not surprising if he was using Windows.

Also:

And TODAY it is “news” that their CEO claims to use Linux?

I think the bigger story is that Novell does not seem to have finished the migration yet.

This comment is particularly informative:

I also suspect that the Linux desktop Hovsepian refers to is probably an unused show piece setting in his office … a dog and pony show to be trotted out when ever questions like “Do you use Linux?” are asked.

When asked why HE initiated the “deal” he replied that he could not sell Linux against Windows. If he could not “sell” Linux against Windows it was because he did not USE Linux… he used Windows as his primary or only desktop. I suspect he still does.

Sean Michael Kerner covered some of his own takeaways from Hovsepian’s talk.

Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian took the stage at Interop this morning and boldly told the capacity crowd that open source is for them.

Another takeaway from his talks is this:

Virtualization and cloud computing will help companies accomplish more by breaking the physical bonds of an IT infrastructure and its users, executives from Cisco and Novell proclaimed this week during their keynote addresses at Interop New York. But caveats such as heightened security threats must be overcome in order to fully benefit from this new computing paradigm, they warned.

David Berlind. who was nearby at the tme, adds a lot of details and a photo.

Hovsepian (pictured below) practically harkened back to the early days of Interop when the event was primarily about interoperability. The major them of his presentation (and clearly Novell’s strategy going forward) was “making IT work as one” and one of the key pillars to that strategy — a pillar that Hovsepian says Novell is positioned to help with — is interoperability. Hovsepian talked about how, IT organizations should be leveraging interoperability and standards to seamlessly blend infrastructures at various layers in the IT stack. For example, virtual systems and physical systems.

The more comprehensive article from Sean Michael Kerner is not particularly focused on Novell, but it does cover some key points.

Those networks you manage aren’t just about moving simple data around any more. That’s the message that leading executives from IBM, Cisco and Novell delivered at the Interop trade show today during the morning keynote sessions.

[...]

Managing it all, the social networking, virtualization and platform issues are becoming increasingly complex. Novell’s CEO Ron Hovsepian noted that ease of management is critical for making everything work. He argued that making management as easy as an iPod should be an operational goal.

Competition

Slashdot gave a boost to an article which gives the impression that Windows is catching up in supercomputing. Given the author of the article, there’s no room for complaints. It’s interesting to find Novell there, but not very surprising.

While technically speaking, the CX1 minisuper is certified to run Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux 5 and can certainly run Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (which is the preferred Linux on Cray’s high-end, massively parallel Opteron boxes, the XT4 and XT5, and which has not been certified on the CX1), Red Hat and Novell were not invited to the CX1 launch party, while Burton Smith, now a technical fellow for parallel computing at Microsoft and formerly the chief scientist at Cray and the company that ate it in March 2000, Tera Computer, as well as Kyril Faenov, general manager of the Windows HPC business at Microsoft, were given great swaths of time during the launch to espouse the virtues of Windows HPC Server 2008. You do the math.

Lenovo, which recently threw SUSE out of its ThinkPads, has for some unknown reason favoured SUSE for servers. No Red Hat yet? How come?

Back in August, The VAR Guy reported that Lenovo was preparing to launch its first servers. Our resident blogger expected the operating system options to include Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE Linux. Turns out, Red Hat wasn’t invited to the Lenovo server party — at least not initially.

Here is an interesting new headline from Pakistan (old news though): Microsoft To Invest Up To $100 Million In Novell Linux

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has expanded a partnership with Novell under which it purchases certificates for Novell Linux support and resells them to customers at a markup.

Microsoft has its reasons to inject money into Novell. It wants to make it the “Linux of choice” in order to injure companies like Red Hat. It seems as though Teradata uses SUSE.

The 2550 scales up to 140 terabytes and is powered by quad-core Intel processors. The system ships with 64-bit Novell SUSE Linux, storage and the Teradata 12 database, which ships with all the company’s appliances. Teradata’s portfolio also includes the Data Mart Appliance 550 and the Active Enterprise Data Warehouse 5550.

Novell showed some presence in this year’s Software Freedom Day, even in Asia. It’s probably Sun which was most prominent though.

The public event on Saturday has assembled a line-up of speakers from various open source vendors, including Novell and Red Hat, as well as smaller local organizations.

Turbolinux

Stepping aside from Novell for just a moment, Turbolinux Client 2008 seems to be making the rounds, but apart from that, except for all the articles in foreign languages, there are just several security notices. From the past week:

• Turbolinux Security Announcement – Postfix denial of service (11/Sep/2008)
• Turbolinux Security Update Fixes Postfix Denial of Service Vulnerability
• Turbolinux Security Update Fixes CGIWrap Cross Site Scripting Issue
• Turbolinux Security Announcement – Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability (httpd)

There is a lot more to go though, so the next post might take a while to write. █

Apart from that coupons story, which is history by now, the only prominent articles appear to be about IBM and SUSE. Here is the first one from Timothy Prickett Morgan:

While Linux has certainly taken off in the high-performance supercomputing labs of academic institutions, commercial enterprises, and government facilities around the world, many of the supercomputers out there are using home-grown Linuxes and are self-supported by fleets of nerds who, in many cases, know as much or more about Linux than the commercial Linux suppliers. That said, this is a cost and both Red Hat and Novell and their server partners want to get more installations among HPC shops.

[...]

The HPCC 8 Pack bundle is available starting August 22. IBM did not announce pricing, but it should be considerably less per node than the cost of a basic SLES 10 license, which costs $349 list from Novell for a basic subscription with one year of Web and telephone support. The IBM HPCC 8 Pack has Big Blue offering Level 1 tech support and does not have telephone support, but does include patches for the Linux stack and for security updates as well as online delivery of those patches and any ancillary software.

The second article is about SUSE-powered mainframes in education.

While most computer science students learn skills on x86 servers, their counterparts at the University of Arkansas will now get hands-on experience on a new IBM system z900 running Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Lastly, Matt Asay connected some statistics from Utah to Novell’s presence there.

Xandros/Linspire

It’s the same old story. It’s all about Eee PC, but pretty much nothing else. Here is a complaint.

The main problem is that all of the files on the site are in the so-called Click ‘N Run (or CNR) format, which is a quick and easy way to install Linux apps — when the Linux distro supports CNR, that is. Unfortunately for ASUS (and Eee PC users), the Eee PC’s Xandros distribution does not. As some on the EeeUser forums point out, however, Xandros now actually owns Linspire (the company behind CNR), so it would seem to be entirely possible that CNR support could be coming in a future version of Xandros, but that still doesn’t explain ASUS putting the cart before the horse like this.

Another mention of Xandros in this new post.

The Eee PC 900 was released, then the 901, 904, 904HD each of them coming with Windows and Linux variations in multiple colours and with more options and extras than you could shake a fistful of sub-notebooks at. There were Atom and non-Atom CPU options and all this without mentioning the assorted peripherals like the Eee PC writing pad or Wii-alike motion controller.

Turbolinux

Turbolinux 12 has just been released, but the English-speaking homepage only raves about Wizpy and other old news.

Turbolinux Appliance Server 3.0 has also been released (quite some time ago in fact) with anti-virus software. The coverage is not in English though. A translation suggests that the price for the 50-user version is 171,000 yen.

More Turbolinux in the news here, here, here and here, among other places.

Turbolinux is now described in DistoWatch as follows: “Turbolinux distributions are designed from the ground-up specifically for enterprise computing. Turbolinux 7 Server was the first-ever to conform to Internationalization standards to help simplify development of applications that require multiple language support – a critical requirement for software distributed globally. Turbolinux 7 Server also supports the Large File Support (LFS) standard for working with applications that manage or handle up to four terabytes of data – a common requirement for infrastructures serving Fortune 500 and larger companies. Such industrial-strength environments provide the basis upon which PowerCockpit and other Turbolinux innovations were created.” █