Summary: SUSE news and videos from the past two weeks

IT HAS BEEN a quiet fortnight from a business perspective. It's a universal thing. Going back to Computex 2009, here is a new video of Novell's Guy Lunardi.





Novell's financial results continue to be iffy and Red Hat's results lead to more punditry at Jupitermedia.

You've got to be big to compete with Microsoft, and it's unlikely that Novell, maker of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, is up to the task. Not least because it relies on Microsoft's generosity in subsidizing SLES. A company the size of Oracle/Sun might be able to go toe to toe with Redmond, but Red Hat certainly can’t.

At an application level, Double-Take posts this press release where SLES gets an almost preferential degree of support.

Double-Take Software will add support for the recently released Novell SLES 11 in its next Double-Take for Linux service pack.

Here is a new blog post about SLES 11 on System p.

The highlight of the evening is a walkthrough and demo of installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 on IBM System p (POWER) by Mike Veltman, our SUSE meetup lead and our talent from Holland.

Speaking of IBM, Novell is mentioned very briefly in this article which got titled "Judge says IBM dude gets the Dell (job)."

(Maybe Johnson could explain that whole IBM-Sun Microsystems dance to us if he has a moment? Or how many times IBM has thought about buying SAP or Red Hat or Novell?)

There is also this about IBM and Novell:

At the hardware layer, IBM's Systems and Technology Group offers a range of server platforms, powered by operating systems that in many cases are promoted externally rather than by IBM. Examples include Linux (promoted by the Linux community, the open source movement, Red Hat and Novell), AIX (effectively promoted by the Unix community as well as by IBM), and Windows, promoted strongly by Microsoft.

Turning over to YouTube, some old Novell videos are being added to it. These include this SLE* 10 clip.



OES2 uses SUSE now and the following video has just been put in YouTube too.



Looking at some SUSE deployments, here is a press release with a new example.

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

Two new articles from Brian Proffitt (about Novell clients) have also been published. The first is about hospitals where there is an element of SLED.

Even as health care costs grow, hospitals and health care centers are constantly looking for ways to cut operating expenses. The cynical would say this is just to increase their profit margins, but that is not always the case. Some hospitals need to cut back to avoid layoffs, or closing a cutting-edge facility, or just survive in a world where patients who have insurance can often pick and choose which hospital they are admitted, and the patients who don't may not be able to foot their own medical bills in a timely manner.

[...]

As you might suspect from the players involved, this is a virtualized Linux solution. Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) is the front-end desktop environment for the 65 machines, which NoMachine's technology providing the remote and encrypted access. IBM provided the System x3650 server for the back-end, and consulted on the design of the system with GAMC's staff.

This is also covered in ITWire.

The system combines NoMachine's NX remote access and virtualisation software, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, and an IBM System x3650 server.

There is also a Red Hat component to this batch of news:

Glendale Adventist Medical Center has successfully installed SUSE Linux-based thin clients in 65 rooms, using technology from IBM, NoMachine, and Novell, say the companies. Meanwhile, Midland Memorial Hospital is touting cost savings from deploying Red Hat Linux-based OpenVista electronic health record software, says Forbes.

Xandros is part of this whole bundle, which demonstrates a mixture of many GNU/Linux distributions.

In the middle sits NoMachine's NX remote access technology. NX, which is bundled with Xandros server, reduces the bandwidth required to run X Window applications over a network by placing caching proxy servers at either end of the connection.

This story is already used as somewhat of a case study and here is the press release which Novell's PR drones seem rather excited about.

A second IBM customer, Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, Calif., has installed 65 thin-client monitors and keyboards in hospital rooms, allowing patients to check email and research their medical conditions from their bedsides. The monitors run NoMachine NX virtual desktops on Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise, with no risk to patient privacy because all the data is stored centrally on IBM system x3650 servers, Haikes said. Glendale Adventist plans to expand the virtual desktops to clinicians and employees in the future.

The second article from Brian Proffitt is about Novell and Sesame Street. This is very old news [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], which leads to reasonable suspicion that Proffitt's encounter with OpenSUSE's community manager could have played a persuasive role.

Sesame Workshop is a non-profit organization with has 40 years worth of digital media over 20 programs distributed to over 120 countries working with over 1000 international partners, almost 50 web sites with manage, and a highly mobile workforce using leased equipment around the world.

Moving on the Novell's executive ranks, John Dragoon publishes this article in the pro-big business press (Forbes), where company executives are routinely treated like guest journalists -- people to be blindly admired. Dragoon uses his article to promote Novell (he is a marketing guy after all). For example:

Demand Generation. Our sales teams and partners need leads. A recent IDC study indicated that it is taking 50% to 100% more leads to generate the same revenue as two years ago. Fortunately, at Novell, we invested in technology that gives us a powerful line of sight between marketing cause and sales impact. That said, our experience tells us that we must generate more opportunities to grow. Business units and sales groups should be aligned to achieve these new targets.

John Dragoon also wrote about Chrome OS. It's Dragoon's first blog post in a very long time. Watch how the pro-Microsoft Eric Lai uses an audience comprising Google's Chrome OS competitors to describe it almost as a negative thing with a suggestive trollish headline (followed by a question mark of course): "Does Google Chrome OS further fragment Linux landscape?"

Here is Novell's response

Justin Steinman, vice president of solution and product marketing for Novell Inc., maker of Suse Linux and recent supporter of Moblin for netbooks: "Let's be clear, Google has Microsoft in the cross-hairs with this announcement. Novell is not concerned with Moblin v2.0 being overshadowed by Chrome OS.... [As for creating fragmentation], this is not really a problem. The vast majority of Linux distributions are using standard Linux kernels, which illustrates very well how mature the Linux kernel has become. A few exceptions exist like Google Android, amongst others. The availability of choice promotes open source in a global fashion. The general market has been using Linux pervasively for a long time now. Novell is convinced the market is ready for an alternative desktop now."

Jeff Jaffe writes about Moblin ahead of Google's overblown announcement.

In my last posting, I outlined the significance of cloud computing and Novell’s architecture to provide infrastructure for the cloud. Herein I will provide some detail for the piece called connecting to the cloud via devices enabled by Moblin.

Looking at YouTube again, there is this curious Novell account which at least includes a disclosure:

Making IT Work As One: Novell expert interviews, partnerships, and success stories. Country: United States Website: http://www.novell.com

The video in question is described as: "John Dragoon, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer of Novell, Inc. and Dr. Michael Maginn, Management Consultant and author of "Effective Teamwork: Managing in Changing Times and Making Teams Work" analyze the dynamic between business teams, emerging technologies and what it takes to effectively bring them together."

Here is the video.



Novell's PR people are promoting it.

Novell has just kicked off its “Getting to One” 10-minute Webcast series. These short Webcasts are designed to offer a unique perspective on some of the key issues and challenges that the IT industry faces today.

Xandros

ASUS with Xandros on EEE PCs gets mentioned in several articles that mostly parrot the smears/revisionism one gets when Microsoft has so much power over the computer press. There may be some exceptions, but they become rarer as history gets rewritten and old articles 'rot' in the Web.

Scalix, which is part of Xandros, got a mention in a couple of places as well:

i. Parallels Announces First EMEA Partner Roadshow — Delivers Education, Business Opportunities and Valuable Connections to Partners

● Business Opportunities — Exclusive insights from leading industry sponsors including: VeriSign, Red Hat, Internet X, OpenSRS, Unison, Backupagent, Scalix/Xandros, Bobcares, Epages, and Commtouch. Parallels will help partners align their business with the Parallels product line-up and create specific sales plans focused on boosting revenue.

ii. Mexican email hosting firm provides premium services thru the use of Scalix Hosting Edition

James Largotta, General Manager of Xandros parent company of Scalix in the region had this to say; "Internet Networks represents a new era in offerings to end users. The services that firms like Internet Networks provides are vital to the day to day operation of any business and firms like Internet Networks are able to provide their clients best of class products like Scalix and allow these clients to focus their attention on their core expertise."

This is now much news for a period of 2 weeks, but it's summer after all. ⬆