Today, we feature an interview with Ted Haeger, director of marketing for Novell Linux Desktop.1. Please tell us about the integration of the software in Novell Linux Desktop 9. Are the changes found in Gaim are now part of the official Gaim? And what about OOo?
Ted Haeger: Yes. We contribute innovations back to the various open source projects
we use.
2. How is iFolder compared with existing VPN or other solutions found today in the Windows land? What are its advantages over Microsoft’s solutions and what those over Red Hat Enterprise?
Ted Haeger: Novell iFolder 2 is a completely different thing from a VPN. iFolder is
for file synchronization service. It is implemented as a client-side
application that synchronizes files from a Windows or Linux desktop to a
back-end server. The server is hosted as an Apache application, so it
uses standard web protocols and ports, encrypted or not, which means
that this service is one that does not require a VPN. Novell iFolder 2
gets a user two beneifits: first, their data is synchronized to a
back-end service so it can be backed up by standard datacenter
processes; second is that a user can synchronize their local data to
another client (through the server), allowing them to have a home
machine and a work machine and a laptop (Windows or Linux) all remain in
synch with each other.
3. Apparently the Novell Desktop uses kernel 2.6.5 while the recent SuSE release employs a more recent kernel. How did this happen?
Ted Haeger: The “recent SuSE” to which you refer must be SUSE LINUX Professional
9.2, which is a product Novell produces for Linux enthusiasts and makes
available through retail channels. Novell Linux Desktop 9 is based on
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9, both of which Novell produces for
business use, and neither of which are available through retail
channels.
4. We hear that there is no default GUI for Novell Desktop (gnome or kde). Do you find it difficult to focus on two user interfaces at the same time, do you believe that it would be easier if development would gear towards the one or the other?
Ted Haeger: It is definitely an added effort to ensure that our contributions are
put forward on both environments, and that both stay on par with each
other. However, neither desktop has enough market dominance for Novell
to force a choice at this point. We have many longstanding SUSE
customers in Europe who currently use KDE. Likewise, in North America,
GNOME tends to be preferred. Because of that, we have decided that it’s
in our customers’ interest to continue supporting both for the time
being.
5. How far away is Beagle from entering a Novell product release?
Ted Haeger: TBD
6. I read about your wireless applet, but I see no major support for recent PocketPC/PalmOS devices, neither Bluetooth/phone support, even if such technologies/devices are very common in the Enterprise. Any comments on this?
Ted Haeger: Novell Evolution definitely supports PalmOS devices. But we have to get
back to the current market segments that we are targeting: the wireless
applet is a cool feature, and we included it as an accommodation for
those who want to use Novell Linux Desktop outside of our target
markets. Bluetooth, phones, and those kind of things will follow as we
expand our target segments. But we need to execute first in the target
spaces we have set for this release.
7. What are the main technical differences between SuSE’s Linux and Novell Desktop? Is YaST the same as in SuSE’s latest release?
Ted Haeger: Technical and feature differentiators are not really strategic in open
source products. Yes, YaST is a differentiator from many other
distributions, but it’s now in open source, and any other distribution
can include it. That’s the open source way–technical differentiators
are community property, and only differentiate from proprietary systems.
We consider our major differentiators to be qualities about our
offering, not features. That is, “Powered by SUSE LINUX” means that
Novell Linux Desktop has been tested and refined to have the known
reliability and securability (yes, we made that word up) for which SUSE
LINUX Enterprise Server has been recognized for years.
8. ZENworks (ex-RedCarpet) is now the update manager for Novell Desktop. Please tell us what kind of updates are going to be part of the Novell Desktop: security updates or also bug fixed versions of packages?
Ted Haeger: ZENworks Linux Management, to be precise. Through update.novell.com,
Novell will provide security updates as well as other patches and fixes.
This is available to customers who choose to purchase Novell Linux
Desktop yearly entitlements from Novell. Also included is updates to any
newer version of Novell Linux Desktop.
Never send your answers before you’re done! 😉
He was done, he just said that it wasn’t decided when Beagle would be considered stable to be part of a Novell release. He could have elaborated more, of course…
I can’t tell you how much I wouldn’t want this guys job. It might sound like a great position, but he is standing mighty damn close to the fire.
Hats off to you Ted, you damn sure got a pair hangin.
For those of us not in the know: what does “TBD” mean?
Thank you.
niek@powerbak ~ $ wtf is tbd
TBD: to be {decided,determined,done}
Both KDE and Gnome included!,thank you.
i subscribed long time ago , to get one copy of the NDL. after some time got a mail (spam:) that i could download a evaluation copy, but limited one.
thats ok, I could buy it to support you…..
but wait, I can download other distros who dont limit my computer. and buy it to support it
i bought JDS from sun.com , got burned
“To be determined”
He said that because there’s no clear answer at this time.
What is limited about the eval version? Will it stop working after some time?
No, there are no restrictions, except for update support (30 days). But you can add another update server to red carpet, if you like.
Do you know another update server than? because I am going to install it now
Kenneth
Huh, not that fast! I just know red-carpet.ximian.com, but there you only get updates for mono, evolution etc. So, I’m not sure if there is a free update server for _every_ package. Sorry for confusion.
Hey Annie Nomus:
“I can’t tell you how much I wouldn’t want this guys job. It might sound like a great position, but he is standing mighty damn close to the fire.
Hats off to you Ted, you damn sure got a pair hangin.”
It’s a thrill ride, to be sure. I’m learning a lot, and blogging my experiences at reverendted.blogspot.com.
–Ted
Novell Desktop Linux is not and never was meant for the home desktop user. You could not “buy it to support you” anyway, as in the interview he makes the point that NDL is not available via retail.
great this seems to be perfect for my laptop, I only hope someone will setup a XD unstable like channel for us who like to break stuff.
What a pity! I like it much more than the “retail version” SUSE 9.2. I would buy NLD, if I could.
I heard that it would b available Friday from the Novell site for $35.00. This was on the discussion from another Novell OSNews article.
From what I’ve read on the Novell site, $35 is the per seat price for their Volume Licensing Agreement, not necessarily for individual consumption. I could be wrong, but I’ve always heard from Novell that NLD is targeted at businesses, whereas SuSE is their home desktop/enthusiast product.
I downloaded it from Novell’s site 2 days ago, I’ve got it installed already, it seems pretty nice but to be honest I’ve not been able to play with it much as of yet.
I guess you could possibly get it through CDW (they have SUSE Enterprise Server so they may carry NLD as well)…
Tried NLD for 2 days, If you used Suse 9.0 I see no difference between NLD and Suse 9.0. The only thing cool about NLD was its beautiful bootsplash. I thought Ximian Gnome would continue to be beautiful like before but I guess apart from seeing the NLD version to be same as Suse 9.2 I really see no point going for NLD. I had to recompile the Kernel on my laptop to get the bootsplash and ndiswrapper work. I was not impressed by the included KDE 3.2 my biggest grime was -> Why do I have to rearrange the Menu after reinstall why cant a stock install look good. I guess suse need to work seriously on Ironing the initial Menu/Desktop look, I think I like fedora in those respects.
on a damn fine product, I simply love the text rendering in NLD.. aside being a version behind GNOME and installing a few apps that weren’t really needed (gnome office apps when OOo is installed) and it missing MonoDevelop and muine, this is one of the years best Linux surprises.
I hate the fact that it installs all that KDE junk when I select the GNOME option, but once you see this baby in action it just melds your heart, crisp text, polish up the *beep*. Aside Fedora Core this is the only distro to actually give me danish OOo when I select danish in the installer, sadly that didn’t go for Firefox, and lots of the distros own stuff isn’t translated either.
I’m fairly impressed with NLD, after 2 disaterous SuSE releases that broke my beloved GNOME in fairly interesting ways this one behaves quite nicely under most conditions.
I like it.. it fits a enterprise desktop nicely I think, and it certainly does okay on my desktop as well.
The “recent SuSE” to which you refer must be SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2, which is a product Novell produces for Linux enthusiasts and makes available through retail channels.
Goodness me, he refers to Suse virtually as a bolt-on alien organisation. The Linux enthusiast and retail channel is the only market that currently works, it has to be pointed out.
5. How far away is Beagle from entering a Novell product release?
How about sometime never? People, and you, were complaining about about the fact that basic things couldn’t even be done on desktop Linux in another article and you’re asking if a simple search system is going to be made available that’s written in a totally unproven programming technology?! Trust me – Beagle is slower than hell, especially if you start turning the stuff on that’s actually going to be useful.
Bluetooth, phones, and those kind of things will follow as we expand our target segments. But we need to execute first in the target spaces we have set for this release.
Best thing said in the interview – it’s just a pity Novell are not following that advice for everything and have not set realistic target spaces.
Ted Haeger: …..We consider our major differentiators to be qualities about our offering, not features. That is, “Powered by SUSE LINUX” means that Novell Linux Desktop has been tested and refined to have the known reliability and securability (yes, we made that word up) for which SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server has been recognized for years.
What an absolutely, totally meaningless answer to this question:
7. What are the main technical differences between SuSE’s Linux and Novell Desktop? Is YaST the same as in SuSE’s latest release?
In other words there’s absolutely no difference whatsoever.
ZENworks (ex-RedCarpet)
Zenworks is a heck of a lot more then Red Carpet (always has been)! The only thing that came out of Red Carpet was some of the package management and dependency management code.
Also included is updates to any newer version of Novell Linux Desktop.
Well I suppose there will have to be, won’t there?
I think Novell should purchase Corel and then open-source Wordperfect. This would enable them to have an office suite that either beats, matches, or comes close to MS office. I personally prefer Wordperfect to Word but that’s a personal thing which has mostly to do with the reveal codes functionality. Also Novell wouldn’t be dependent upon Sun to give them an office suite that matches MS Office 97 or maybe 2000 if Openoffice is configured properly.
Another option would be to invest in the GNOME or KDE office apps, other than Evolution and Kontact.
You can get updates and additional software that will work on Suse 9.1, 9.2, SLES 9, NLD 9 by adding http://www.open-carpet.org/services/gwdg to the red-carept services list. The will add a ton of channel’s that you can subscribe to if you so chose. Currently you won’t get security updates or kernel updates for anything but 9.1 however 9.2 will eventlually be added. SLES 9 and NLD 9 (which is based on SLES 9) will never have updates to the kernel or security avaliable this way, however you can still use it to update apps. For example I’m using Suse 9.1 with 2.6.5-757.inotify.2-default kernel and Gnome 2.8 as well as Kde 3.3 all updated via red-carpet. I also installed the ifolder rpm from the NLD disc and the Custom OpenOffice from NLD disk on my 9.1 box. I believe this puts me ahead (for the most part) of what is included with 9.2. All though I did pay for the retail 9.1 Pro I clould have accomplished all of this for free by doing the ftp install of the base OS.