Working Tech: Novell looks to Linux for a lifeline
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| The storied software company won a pass from such ominous epithets
| for the last few years by buying open-source startups Ximian and Suse
| Linux. It announced bold plans to embrace open source starting in 2004.
| At the time Novell's strategy was to combine its NetWare operating
| system with Linux to compete with Microsoft's dominant Windows
| operating system.
|
| [...]
|
| In July, the company plans to release both Suse Linux Enterprise Server
| 10 and Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, versions of the Linux
| operating system designed for corporate computing - an area that has
| seen little adoption of the open-source operating system to date.
|
| "We're trying to take Linux to places it hasn't been taken before
| and significantly growing the Linux marketplace," says Jaffe. While Linux
| has won a growing share of the server market, it's primarily found on
| cheap, low-end servers that host webpages and perform other simple
| functions.
|
| [...]
|
| On the desktop, Jaffe says Novell is betting that Linux will serve the
| needs of typical "knowledge workers" who use e-mail, surf the Web, and
| work on spreadsheets, word-processing documents, and presentations.
|
| If those tasks sound a lot like those handled by software from a
| certain large software company, it's not by accident.
|
| "Our friends in Redmond have done us a favor," says Jaffe, pointing
| to announced delays in the availability of Microsoft's new Windows
| Vista operating system. Vista isn't expected to land until January
| 2007, while Novell's Code Ten versions of Linux are expected this
| July, giving Novell a six-month head start.
|
| [...]
|
| And Microsoft continues to suffer from security woes: Windows Vista,
| long before its official release, has already had to have a security
| patch issued to fix bugs that hackers could exploit. That's another
| selling point for Linux.
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http://biz.yahoo.com/hbusn/060612/060106_business2_workingtech_0601.html?.v=1
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