Shark Bait

Knowledge Centers

Operating Systems

Networking & Internet

Mobile & Wireless

Security

Storage

Business Intelligence

Servers & Data Center

Computerworld Reports

Industry

See your link here

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Cyber Cynic

Novell's marriage of Linux and Windows

11 comments

TAGS:desktop linux, Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Windows
IT TOPICS:Desktop Applications, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Windows & Microsoft

Novell has just released the latest versions of its flagship operating system: SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) and SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) 11. You don't have to be a Linux expert to quickly see what's different about these Linux distributions. SLE is easily the most Windows-friendly of any edition of Linux in history.

How friendly? I've already been using SLED 11 for a few days and I can now say that you can manage SLED workstations with AD (Active Directory); read and write Office 2007 file formats; watch and listen to Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Media videos and audio; and work smoothly and fully with Exchange server. SLED's the closest thing you've ever seen to a Windows desktop that's actually Linux. For more on that, look for my SLED review in ComputerWorld later this week.

Novell and Microsoft's partnership doesn't stop at the desktop. Novell states that SLE will run at near-native performance on Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization. While I haven't done any extensive testing of this, I have used a SLES 11 beta on Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2008, and it was darn fast.

Novell has also introduced a new product along with SLE: SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension. Mono is a Novell-sponsored, open-source project that enables administrators and users to run .NET based applications on Linux. This new product provides commercial support for Mono. The company claims that SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension will allow organizations to consolidate their .NET applications onto Linux, dramatically saving costs.

In particular, Novell claims that SUSE Linux Enterprise Mono Extension will work on mainframes. In other words, you can run .NET-based applications on IBM System z. Frankly, this strikes me as doing more than anything Microsoft has ever done to make it possible that .NET might finally challenge Java-based server applications.

This is all good news for Windows users who want their Windows infrastructure with some Linux stability. Free software purists, who see Novell as the Benedict Arnold of Linux for partnering with Microsoft, have another take.

Roy S. Schestowitz, an editor at Boycott Novell told me that there are two ways of how to look at the Novell SLE news: "Version one: Microsoft and Novell work on interoperability for the benefit of the Linux community." And, "Version two: Microsoft infects Open Source with the Novell/Microsoft patent covenant, Mono/.NET, and Microsoft codecs."

You can guess which way he sees it.

I straddle the middle. While I can see Schestowitz's point, I also think that SLE, by serving as a bridge between Windows users and Linux, will end up making all Linuxes, and not just Novell's, more popular in the long run.

That said, the reality is that Red Hat, which partners with Microsoft, but keeps the boys from Redmond at a distance, has maintained its lion's share of the business Linux market, while Novell has stayed a distant second. Perhaps being Windows compatible isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Email this

Digg this

What People Are Saying

Add new comment

The ballerina and the elephant - Who's leading?

Submitted by Jacob on April 1, 2009 - 7:10 A.M.

Ballerina Novell do tango with Microsoft the elephant. Believing that the elephant is led by the ballerina is dillutional at best.

I have mixed feelings about Novell. On one hand they produce quality code and making it available to the community. On the other hand the entanglement with Microsoft is not good at all.

What increasingly worries me is GNOME.

Gnome is (said to be) a result of not being able to accept the licencing of QT. These days Novell seems to have huge influence i.e more than ever before, and it's the Microsoft cash that's flowing. What happened with the ethics that caused the clinch with KDE?

They can swallow Mono/.net/asp entanglement but not the old QT licences? Just had a brief look into the Gnome scratchpad and it's not good news for Linux.

Ubuntu users - beware.

I've ceased using Novell/OpenSuse and have put Ubuntu/Gnome on hold. Looking at CentOS/Debian for servers.

Reply | Report this comment

Can you see beyond your religion?

Submitted by Realist on March 26, 2009 - 12:44 P.M.

I'm little disappointed with so many dogmatic comments.

Have you ever asked yourself, why is Windows still running at 90% desktops? Perhaps RedHat and other's Linux "professional" distros did a crappy job in a last 10 years and helped M$ to stay #1? Perhaps they did it on purpose? Or they are in in just to make money and they do not know how to charge for desktop?

And why is Vista failure? Perhaps because it is not compatible to WinXP as much as it was to previous versions of Windows?

At least you have to admit, that Novell is for a last 4 years trying to do move Linux desktop towards what's expected in a enterprise (SLE) and majority of ordinary users (OpenSuse). Without basic compatibility with existing desktop, majority will not even consider moving to something else, they always stay on a safe side.

Without basic Windows compatibility, Linux desktop will remain playground for geeks and freaks.

Reply | Report this comment

I'm moving away from windows

Submitted by Luis on March 25, 2009 - 8:54 A.M.

Why I will need interoperability with Windows when I'm moving away from it?
Active Directory? Working with out it.
Office 2007? Who use it? Using OpenOffice 3.0.
Sirverlight? Who use it? Using Flash.
Windows Media videos audio? VLC and so many out there.
Exchange? Using Openexchange for the last 6 years with no problems at all.
I stop using Novell Suse since Judas sold its soul to m$ for a few coins. I don't recommend it or talk about it any more.
I'm using LINUX Redhat for Servers and LINUX ELive for desktops.
Live FREE with LINUX or...

Reply | Report this comment

Freedom

Submitted by Anonymous on March 25, 2009 - 8:46 A.M.

It's the freedom that keep people staying with GNU/Linux, even when it has no GUI or fancy features.

If you don't value your freedom, you will likely to loose it.

Reply | Report this comment

One or another

Submitted by Anonymous on March 24, 2009 - 10:29 P.M.

Either Novell has an extremely powerful weapon against Microsoft (or at least believes it has) or Microsoft has just gently inserted a fishing hook deep inside Novell's bowels.
Telling me Microsoft just loves to help Linux or that it listens to their customers without any hidden plan, this is plain silly. You mean Microsoft opening its precious invaluable IP to the Linux masses at large just like that, with no benefit ?
Can anyone tell us what's going to happen to this beautiful Linux distribution and its Mono / .Net contamination after Microsoft's promise not to sue will expire ?

Reply | Report this comment

This sounds a little like

Submitted by Anonymouse on March 24, 2009 - 8:15 P.M.

This sounds a little like "Novell Suse: The Linux to have if you want MSWindows". I'm sure some people would find it useful, but it has no value in my own work environment.

At least it looks like Novell are taking interoperability seriously and that's bound to have some value in the business world. In my own little specialized world the most important thing is access to source code (preferably Free software) - interoperability is not an issue at all because of free access to the source. Short story: interoperability is important, but it is a trivial issue when talking about Free software and I see no fundamental need for the complexity introduced by working with MS.

Reply | Report this comment

Sounds more like . . .

Submitted by Ken Jennings on March 25, 2009 - 8:41 A.M.

>This sounds a little like "Novell Suse: The Linux to have if you want MSWindows". I'm sure some people would find it useful, but it has no value in my own work environment.

How about, "The Linux to have if you're a corporate purchase approver or middle manager who once read about Linux in an airline magazine and who has engineers hounding him to deploy linux."

There's another weird belief ingrained in corporate grey matter that "you can't get fired for buying Microsoft." (Long ago that used to be IBM.) If it is perceived that Novell is the "Microsoft-approved" Linux, then less-than-clueful business types are more likely to chose Novell's SLED than another mainstream distro.

However, I don't think the plan is working so well. Didn't Novell just have an awful quarterly statement?

Reply | Report this comment

Novell Financials

Submitted by sjvn on March 25, 2009 - 8:51 A.M.

>However, I don't think the plan is working so well. Didn't Novell just have an awful quarterly statement?<

Correct. Linux actually continues to keep growing for them, but pretty much everything else was on the down side. Red Hat, however, is kicking rump and taking names.

So, as far as Linux contract sales go, both are doing well, but Red Hat continues to do better.

Steven

Reply | Report this comment

I likes the last point

Submitted by Brotherred on March 24, 2009 - 8:08 P.M.

I like that last parragraph very much. That might not be surprizing.

Brotherred

Reply | Report this comment

but, can it handle spaces in usernames?

Submitted by Robert Pogson on March 24, 2009 - 7:17 P.M.

I have some users who are part of a 2003 domain and the only thing that is tricky is spaces in filenames. I could not get it to work with GNOME but XFCE doesn't care...

Of course, my life would be infinitely simpler to use LDAP and GNU/Linux everywhere but this legacy OS keeps getting in the way.

Reply | Report this comment