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Novell builds bridges...from Red Hat to SUSE

Even as Red Hat, Canonical, Novell, and other Linux vendors seek to differentiate their respective offerings, Novell wants to make it easy to overcome differences between Linux distributions...provided that customers want to migrate to Novell's SUSE? Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

On Tuesday Novell announced a new Linux migration program - the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Subscription with Expanded Support program - to make it easier to switch from Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS to SLES. From the press release:

Many times, customers who want to move between platforms are constrained by factors such as IT resource limitations, application migration scheduling and training costs, which means they need time to make an orderly transition. In response to these challenges, Novell is providing technical support for a customer's existing Linux environment and is also delivering training and tools to ensure the transition to the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform is smooth and successful.

Intriguingly, the program also includes technical support for customers' existing Linux deployments for up to two years while they migrate to SUSE. Did Novell just get into the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Red Hat knock-off game?

No. The short-term support is designed to be just that: short term. Unlike Oracle, Novell is interested in converting Red Hat users to SUSE, not keeping them as Red Hat users but changing the logo on the box to its own.

I asked Justin Steinman, vice president of Solution and Product Marketing at Novell, for clarification on how it will staff its Red Hat support, in particular, and he made it clear that such support has long been a part of its business:… Read more

Novell lays off employees in Europe

Update (November 6, 2008 at 5:10 AM PDT): A Novell spokesman contacted me to indicate the the Google translation is wrong. In fact, no employees were laid off. Offices were closed and employees have been asked to work from home.

Novell laid off employees close to its SUSE home in Germany and Austria, as reported in Silicon.de (Translation here), shuttering sales offices in Vienna, Munich, and Berlin. The number of employees laid off has not yet been made public.

Such layoffs, however, shouldn't necessarily be read as part of a broader cost-cutting move on Novell's part. … Read more

Novell opens up OpenSuse's board

Last week, Novell did a very curious and exceptional thing: it loosened its grip on the OpenSuse community, allowing (and encouraging) its first community-elected and -managed board.

How cool is that? Novell has had an OpenSuse board for the past year, but not one for and by the community itself. I asked Joe Brockmeier, OpenSuse community manager, to comment:

Having a community-elected board is a major step forward for the project. We now have more than 212 recognized members, which means that contributors who have made significant and sustained contributions to the project, and who have applied for membership, and … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 843: Nine legal uses for BitTorrent

We asked. You answered. Our listeners provided not seven, not eight, but nine real legal legitimate uses for BitTorrent. Plus Apple's getting into an old-fashioned spat with IBM. Just like 1979 all over again. Plus Rafe says stop whining about Windows 7. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 843

National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Trojan virus steals bank info http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7701227.stm http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10079593-83.html

Apple hires top IBM chip designer and blade server guru http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10079494-37.html

More on … Read more

Novell's identity management gets some open-source competition

Life may have just become a wee bit harder for Novell. Novell has been an open-source competitor for years in the Linux market, but it's less clear how Novell will react to open-source competitors to its proprietary products.

In the Linux server market, Novell knows how to fight fire with fire, with IDC suggesting that Novell's SUSE has been making market-share gains at Red Hat's expense. Red Hat still dominates the market with more than 60 percent of global market share, but Novell has an increasingly viable response to Red Hat's dominance.

It's less clear, … Read more

The dying embers of Microsoft's IP claims against open source

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's intellectual property counsel, indicated that Microsoft has finally seen the open-source light in a recent interview with CNET. Demonstrating that Microsoft has finally learned that it can't fight open-source gravity, Gutierrez suggests, "Today, but increasingly in the future, we are all going to be 'mixed source'," meaning Microsoft and everyone else will balance open source with some proprietary element to their business.

I actually think the war between proprietary and open source is a thing of the past.

In fact, we're already there. Even Microsoft. But it's nice to have Redmond admit it.

What was perhaps less pleasant, and completely unnecessary because Microsoft lacks both the will and the strategic interest in pursuing it, was Gutierrez's saber-rattling over Microsoft's patents:

While Microsoft is patient, Gutierrez indicated that Microsoft's patience is not unlimited. "If every effort to license proves not to be fruitful, ultimately we have a responsibility to customers that have licenses and to our shareholders to ensure our intellectual property is respected," he said.

Yes, you do, Microsoft. Fortunately, the more Microsoft uses open source within its products, the less it trots out this tired refrain from the past.

The fact is that Microsoft has yet to find a way to call out its intellectual property (IP) in things like Linux without stumbling over all of the IP that it, in turn, has "borrowed" from others, including the open-source world. Plus, Microsoft can't sue open-source communities without bumping up against companies like IBM with much broader patent portfolios than its own. If Microsoft sues, Microsoft loses.

Indeed, I'd argue that one primary reason for shacking up with Novell wasn't Microsoft's patent portfolio, but rather Novell's: Novell had key IP that goes to the heart of Microsoft's Office business. The Linux patent covenant was a way for Microsoft to clean up its own patent violations. Funny, that. When I was at Novell my team in the CTO's office never worried about a patent lawsuit from Microsoft.

But that's just the way the modern software world works: it's such a thicket of conflicting IP claims that the only rational (and workable) solution is to overlook competing claims.… Read more

Microsoft's virtualization landgrab exposes VMware vulnerability

VMware may still hold 78 percent of the virtualization market when measured by revenue, as reported by ComputerWorld. But Microsoft has learned a thing or two from open source and now claims a whopping 23 percent of the market based on shipments of new licenses, with VMware down to 44 percent of new licenses.

With just a few months in the market with its Hyper-V product, Microsoft's market share progress signals discontent with VMware's pricing and suggests that Microsoft may not be the only one capable of feeding at the virtualization trough.

Red Hat and Novell: time to … Read more

Desktop Linux: You've got a long way to go, baby

Despite the success of Linux, and particularly Ubuntu, in ultraportable netbooks, Ars Technica is reporting that Linux netbooks have a dramatically higher return rate than Windows-based netbooks, and for some very good reasons.

Ranging from "It's not Windows" to hardware compatibility problems, Linux netbooks are off to a rocky start. True, as Novell's Nat Friedman tells Ars Technica, it was to be expected that there would be "some hiccups on what is essentially the first large-scale consumer rollout of Linux desktops to new Linux users." That these are new Linux users is in and … Read more

Novell and Sun as private companies?

The Register correctly points out that at current valuations and bank balances, Sun Microsystems and Novell would make a lot of sense as private companies. I don't have enough data on Sun to make a good argument there, but I've long held that Novell would benefit tremendously from a few years off the Wall Street radar.

Novell is doing much better in its Linux business, but I continue to believe that as a company it's forced to stick with dying product lines that it would happily shelve or sell but for the pressure to deliver quarterly numbers. … Read more