Summary: News about the different types of "Ballnux" distributions (ones from which Microsoft extracts profit through intimidation and collusion)

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

THERE HAS BEEN NO major news about SLE* in the month of February, but the product in being used or deployed in some areas. Novell's marketing people write about the SUSE appliance of ROC EasySpooler. Here is the press release (also here):

ROC Software Systems Inc. announces the first release of the ROC EasySpooler SUSE-powered appliance. Based on the reliable ROC EasySpooler core technology and a fully supported version of SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, the appliance provides the highest level of print output management available to any business environment.

Here is something related that was mentioned two or three weeks ago when the press release came out.



More analysis from The VAR Guy:

Meanwhile, Novell apparently has some momentum going around SUSE Studio and the SUSE Appliance Toolkit.

Novell’s growing focus on software appliances has earned generally upbeat feedback from bloggers and software developers alike. The approach, in theory, allows ISVs to rapidly write SUSE Linux applications that have specific purposes in mind — such as database management, systems management or collaboration.

Since its July 2009 release, SUSE Studio has built more than 250,000 appliances and has nearly 55,000 registered users worldwide, according to Novell statements from January 2010.

Our resident blogger is impressed.

A Linux Planet writer has reviewed SUSE Studio, giving some numbers too:

To date, Novell has had strong usage of its online SUSE Studio Linux appliance development service, with over 250,000 software appliances built. Even with that success, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) sees a need to expand the effort with a new SUSE Appliance Toolkit providing an on-premises version of SUSE Studio, as well as a new Lifecycle Management Server to manage appliance updates.

It points to this older article. Promoters of Vista 7 (for money) have also used their publication to promote SUSE Studio:

Can't code? Don't worry! You can create a top-quality custom Linux distro from the comfort of your web browser using SUSE Studio.

Novell uploaded this video which bears the description: "At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010, Novell announced SUSE Moblin, the first fully-supported Moblin preload for netbooks. SUSE Moblin provides a fully-enabled desktop operating system optimized for Internet, social media, and Web-centric collaboration usage with netbooks and nettops."

Another more important announcement that involves Novell actually comes from LPI, whose joint press release says:

Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) and The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) today announced an international partnership to standardize their entry-level Linux certification programs on LPIC-1. Under this program, Linux professionals who have earned their LPIC-1 status will also satisfy the requirements for the Novell€® Certified Linux Administrator (CLA) certification. In addition, Novell Training Services has formally agreed to include required LPIC-1 learning objectives in its CLA course training material.

The text can also be found here and it is worth adding that some months ago we saw that Jim Lacey (LPI head) would be joined by another executive in LPI — one who had granted many Microsoft and Novell certifications beforehand. There could be a relation to this, even though it's not necessarily the case. In any event, we have found some blog posts on the subject, but there is hardly any news coverage (unless ComputerWorld (IDG) UK counts ).

Novell earlier today partnered up with the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). Under terms of the partnership:

* Linux professionals who have earned their LPIC-1 status will also satisfy the requirements for the Novell Certified Linux Administrator (CLA) certification. * Novell Training Services has formally agreed to include required LPIC-1 learning objectives in its CLA course training material. * Together, Novell and LPI want to develop the “Linux workforce of the future,” according to Jim Lacey, president and CEO of LPI.

Novell's marketing people wrote about this using a headline that only distantly alludes to the news:

Linux Skills Are Attractive to Employers

[...]

This week, Novell and The Linux Professional Institue (LPI), announced an international partnership to standardize their entry-level Linux certification programs on LPIC-1. Under the terms of the agreement, all qualified LPIC-1 holders will have the opportunity to apply for Novell Certified Linux Administrator certification without additional exams or fees.

SGI has some new product which turns out to have SLES support. This is not surprising.

At the system software level, Cyclone offers a flexible computing environment with the choice of Novell(R) SUSE(R) or Red Hat(R) Linux(R) operating systems, further performance-optimized through the addition of SGI(R) ProPack(TM). Altair PBS Professional(R) and SGI(R) ISLE(TM) Cluster Manager provide system scheduling and management.

SLES support is also offered by Double-Take based on this new press release:

In addition to full-server replication, Double-Take Availability for Linux Version 4.6 also expands support for Novell€® SUSE€® Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) beyond version 10 to include support for versions 9 and 11.

Microsoft's Walli (well, a former Microsoft employee who is now influencing FOSS projects in a way that's hostile towards Freedom) wrote about Red Hat's value versus Novell's, but the situation is only being used as an example:

Let me borrow an example from discussions and a blog post from three years ago. Saving even 50% per year on a Red Hat support contract by switching to Novell is irrelevant. The risk of instability isn't balanced against a commensurate savings in the overall budget (against say the IBM or Oracle annual spend), or new value-add to the company. It's not worth the conversation.

Infobright goes with support for the older SLES 10, which seems like an odd choice. SLES 11 has been out for quite a while, but many administrators still (understandably) run version 10.

Infobright Enterprise Edition 3.3.1 also answers the demand for broader platform support with the addition of Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 and Microsoft 32-bit Windows Server to the broad range of popular operating systems already supported by IEE.

More Novell SUSE in the wild:

The heart of the laboratory is a 160-gigabyte database of environmental and agricultural project records running on six HP servers and two Novell servers storing the data and running the modeling software.

A relationship is forming with VMware, which is run by several former Microsoft executives [1, 2, 3, 4].

Novell and VMware are making it easier for independent software vendors (ISVs) to optimize their applications for SUSE Linux Enterprise and VMware ESX. Novell is the first operating system vendor to offer Unified Certification for ISVs with VMware.

Hardware

Intel has some new processor that Novell is said to have "praised":

Microsoft Relevant Products/Services, Red Hat, Novell and others praised Intel's new processor.

Processor.com seeks many comments from Novell staff and this time it does so for an article about "Migrating From Unix/RISC To x86 Servers"

For example, low-impact systems are often migrated first and the RISC hardware is redeployed to handle expansion of another RISC-based business application, which allows its life to be fully utilized.” Kerry Kim, data center product manager at Novell (www.novell.com), says another migration trigger is an overall data center upgrade and consolidation project, which often entails refreshing and standardizing the server infrastructure.

OES

Some days ago we wrote about the NHS being too dependent on Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. We now find that the NHS is among the few who renew and extend a contract with Novell:

The agreement is worth around €£6 million and will run for up to five years. The NHS will use Novell’s Open Enterprise Server 2 system, as well as the Storage and Access Manager software, as the security “backbone” for 300,000 users accessing the applications.

[...]

Mark Ferrar, strategy director at the NHS, said that using an open source-based system “not only reduces costs, but will also underpin two key strategic initiatives for the NHS – reducing our environmental impact and moving towards a cloud computing environment”.

More information from Ziff Davis [1, 2, 3]:

Specifically, Novell is providing the NHS with its Open Enterprise Server 2 and Storage and Access Manager. This will act as the operating system backbone to support over 300,000 users, said Novell. Meanwhile it is also including ZENworks Configuration Management for remote management, so that IT personel can issue updates and fixes remotely.

ZENworks too is being added to the mix:

NHS Bromley has taken remote control of more than 800 PCs in its GP practices, using an IT solution from Novell.

Novell's marketing people brag about some rating of ZENworks.

Linspire

Google is giving cash for bugs. Mozilla's Bug Bounty evokes memories of Linspire's role in funding it: [also here]

Mozilla announced its Bug Bounty Program in 2004, funded by Linux distribution, Linspire and Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the Ubuntu Project, a linux distribution. Under Mozilla's program, reporters of valid critical security bugs receive a $US500 cash reward and a Mozilla T-shirt.

Michael Robertson's role in Linspire is mentioned right here, but the article is not about Linspire, which is just a fossilised part of history one year after the patent deal with Microsoft.

Samsung, LG, and Kyocera Mita

Samsung, the Korean giant which also signed a patent deal with Microsoft (involving Linux), is bringing to market some Ballnux phones:

Vodafone 360 features a specially designed user interface using Vodafone’s ‘proximity algorithm’ (it brings the most frequently contacted to the front of the list), which was built and designed on the LiMo Foundation’s Linux platform. The native functionality of 360 will focus on content aggregation - bringing together all contacts and content in one place and allowing customers access to different networking sites including Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk. Users can also create different contact groups across social networks, so as to share different information with different groups of people.

There is more here, here, here, and here:

Samsung has announced its first Android phone for the Korean market, the Android 2.1-ready SHW-M100S phone, says SamsungHub,. In other Android news, several sites have tipped an HTC-made "Incredible" phone, and Acer reports hot sales of its "Liquid" smartphone.

LG and Samsung are very similar when it comes to their phone strategy and Linux strategy (paying Microsoft for Linux). A couple of articles mention these Korean giants in tandem:

MOBILE PHONE MAKERS LG and Samsung have previewed two new models geared for social networking just a a week ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, according to Engadget here and here.

Here is more from LG and from Kyocera Mita, which pays Microsoft for Linux as well. These products are better off avoided. ⬆