Novell Aims SLES 11 at Sun, Red Hat
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 20th Mar 2008 21:43 UTC
SuSE, openSUSE The next version of Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server will focus on migration technologies and virtualisation, in order to entice users from Unix and take market share from Red Hat, according to a roadmap announced at the company's BrainShare meeting in Salt Lake City. Version 11 of SLES is not due until the middle of 2009, but Novell has announced six main 'themes' for the release, including mission critical servers, virtualisation, interoperability, green IT, Unix migration and desktop Linux. Speaking of SUSE, openSUSE 11.0 alpha 3 has been released.
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Nothing of Consequence
by segedunum on Thu 20th Mar 2008 22:33 UTC
segedunum
Member since:
2005-07-06

"It's not traditional for a manufacturer to announce themes like this," said Justin Steinman, director of Linux marketing at Novell, "but this is open source — we're aiming for a new level of transparency."


Rrrright.

Unix migration in particular is "huge growth opportunity," said Steinman, who expects Suse Linux to be adopted on many of the 700,000 servers currently running the Sun Solaris version of Unix. "That's a very rich environment for migration to Linux,"


The excitement over Unix migrations started and was over years ago, as that's how Red Hat came to worry Sun so much. However, all that could have been migrated has, all those who want to stay on Unix are staying on it for a particular reason, and Linux distributors can't continue to hope that they can avoid competing against Microsoft and Windows forever. Obviously, Novell was very late on to that train and aren't even aware that it has left the station.

I've got a suggestion for Novell. How about they start competing against their number one competitor, the number one threat to their business and the number one company taking people away from Netware and off Novell altogether? You know, Microsoft.

"We have several flagship customers with 20,000 to 30,000 desktops based on Linux," he said.


That's absolutely nothing. The only way you will circumvent the OEM channel that Microsoft controls is to create a freely available desktop distribution that will have a chance of creating a desktop market for you.

"The reality is that the majority of our customers have Windows... If they are making a Linux distribution choice, they will pick the one that has been optimised for Windows."


Optimised for Windows? What, you mean that operating system that a great deal of your Netware customers are migrating to? Wow. You guys should get yourself a 'Designed For Windows Vista' sticker from Microsoft. I'll say it again: Microsoft is your biggest competitor.

...expanded partnership between Novell and SAP, especially focussed around Intel-based systems for the SME market, said Steinman. "This announcement makes it clear that Suse is SAP's Linux platform," he said.


SAP are trying to sell to the SME market? Excuse me while I get back on my chair.

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