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Check "Zen" for linux a Novell product (See link http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/sneakpeek. html ) that is an update to Ximian Red Carpet Server and red-carpet client used for distributing patches to linux distributions and applications as well as imaging, and asset (inventory of hardware and software) management.

I think that Paul Kangro may have been talking about "Zen" for linux a Novell product (See link http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/sneakpeek. html ) that is an update to Ximian Red Carpet Server and red-carpet client used for distributing patches to linux distributions and applications as well as imaging, and asset (inventory of hardware and software) management.

Do you think that Novell's Kangro might have been talking about Novell Zenworks for linux?
http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/

zenworks
http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/index.html ?sourceidint=productscatmenu_zenworks

Manage windows and linux machines.

(yes, I'm biased. I work for Novell, and manage their internal ZLM server in emea)

Yes, version 7 is quite an improvement over what is essentially Red Carpet Enterprise. If they can integrate AppArmor security policies into it there really won't be any need for any other tools. The difference in the web interface alone is enough to make an admin cry. Just out of curiousity, you're not the same gentleman from Novell whose business cards actually read "Evil Zen Scientist" are you?

Key things - this is not just software distribution anymore - it's full stack management of Linux - server and workstation; Red Hat as well as SuSE/Novell.

As for customers - yes it's in use; yes Novell use it internally to manage their desktop and server machines. Usual disclaimers.

Key things - this is not just software distribution anymore - it's full stack management of Linux - server and workstation; Red Hat as well as SuSE/Novell.

As for customers - yes it's in use; yes Novell use it internally to manage their desktop and server machines. Usual disclaimers.

Key things - this is not just software distribution anymore - it's full stack management of Linux - server and workstation; Red Hat as well as SuSE/Novell.

As for customers - yes it's in use; yes Novell use it internally to manage their desktop and server machines. Usual disclaimers.

ZENworks is cross-platform. So even if the server is Novell Linux...

http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/quicklook. html

I downloaded the 9.1 EL (suse enterprise linux) from novell.com the other day...

http://www.novell.com/products/linuxenterpriseserv er/eval.html

I think it was this page. As far as I an tell they're not crippled in any way, which is nice because I need them for testing platforms for WAS, ORacle etcetera (need to test stuff before we deploy at customer sites) :-)

Since when is SUSE not free? Like many distros they heavily push their paid options, but the free ones are easily accessible as well.

Lotus will run fairly well under Wine, here's some instructions.

You'd think by now IBM would provide a native version, here's an article with various reasons - port is too hard, no market, Wine, etc, but one more reason is there are already decent Office-like products available on Linux, StarOffice/OpenOffice, KDE, etc.

The objective of education is suppose to get people ready for life. Guess what, the vast majority of kids are going to work in an environment where Windows is used. Linux has it's place and it is not on the desktop, yet.

Of course you have a couple of valid points however, please also consider the following:

More of my customers run Linux on the desktop than all versions of MacOS combined. And I am the only one in my area who supports either.

Most of my customers who run Linux are not technically savvy. But they find that they learn how to use the computer more easily with Linux than with Windows.

You have a point that most businesses are still tied to Windows but that is changing too. If we are to prepare our children for the real world, I can guarantee you that by the time they get out of school that they will find that Linux use will prepare them at least as well as Windows use.

I and I alone must support 14 different buildings with a total of over 5,000 computers. Desktop management is extremely important for me. I currently use Zenworks to manage the desktops. There is nothing in the Linux world that compares with the options available for Windows management.

Right. It is not as if Zenworks is is available for Linux or anything, right?

I understand what Microsoft is doing. They are not making any money off of our district. What they are doing is molding future consumers. Am I ok with this? Yes I am.

OK. I am confused. Is the purpose of education to prepare students for the real world or to help indoctrinate them into using a certain brand of products? I.e. are schools to be used for extending and protecting Microsoft's monopoly or are they to be used for actually teaching people about computers. Like it or not, Windows is *not* a good OS to learn much of anything on.

Regarding application support.... Here is your one major point. It is not a matter of being ready for the desktop. It is a matter fo the Linux desktop being ready for a vertical market. This is the one thing that keeps many of my customers from using Linux on the desktop, but it is the one thing that is driving others to it.

One has a chicken and egg issue too. If nobody uses Linux in education, nobody releases software for Linux in education. If nobody releases software for Linux in education, then nobody uses Linux in education. This is a real problem. The answer is that you have to start somewhere. Your district is starting with the OpenEnterprise server. Good for you. This is just the first step. Now the next step is to use Zenworks for Linux and have a small lab of Linux desktops. Then move it out to larger labs. Then maybe even into the classroom. Figure that such a migration, if done right, could take 3-5 years or longer.

Isn't Mono sponsered/supported by Novell?

http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2004/06/p r04045.html

From what I've heard, large corporations are now picking up SuSE, because it is now Novell backed. In addition to two SuSE branded products (one each of client and server), there's also Novell Linux Desktop and Open Enterprise Server (basically Netware and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server).

Debian can drop almost 50% in one year? That's too many points in one year to be accepted as is. Being on the Debian mailing list I find very few mentions of people dropping or moving.

Every person I've talked to that formerly used Debian on their Desktop systems, now uses Ubuntu instead. They still use Debian for servers, though.

From what I've heard, large corporations are now picking up SuSE, because it is now Novell backed. In addition to two SuSE branded products (one each of client and server), there's also Novell Linux Desktop and Open Enterprise Server (basically Netware and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server).

Debian can drop almost 50% in one year? That's too many points in one year to be accepted as is. Being on the Debian mailing list I find very few mentions of people dropping or moving.

Every person I've talked to that formerly used Debian on their Desktop systems, now uses Ubuntu instead. They still use Debian for servers, though.

There is actually a port to windows, I don't know if it's ready yet.
Here's some info on evolution and some screenshots.

But why not switch to linux altogether? ;-)

Actually, if you add it up, SuSE might take the cake for sheer volume.

e.g. patches for SuSE Linux 9.3 x86

It's a long list considering that the distribution release isn't that old. In fact, all those updates seem to be from last month.

Even if you just look at security issues, well, SuSE Linux has its share.

SuSE Linux security advisories (since '92)

Of course, since SuSE seems to try to ship versions of every package they can find, to the point where they really take advantage of a DVD's capacity, it's not really surprising that they find themselves offering a lot of patches.

There are several clients available, here, here, and here, and there are many others. Hope that helps.

So what you're saying is that everybody should use M$Word for the rest of eternity because everybody uses it already?

Change, fortunately, happens. By the time these school kids hit the interviewers OpenOffice 4.0 should be well known, everybody at home will be using it because it's cheap and freely copyable and companies will be using it because the people at home are using it and are trained in it. The cost of OpenOffice training is grossly exaggerated.

---

Are you a creator or a consumer?

Like the parent, I started as a Sun admin in the mid-90s (1995, with SunOS v4.1.4_U2 on SS 10), and as much as I have respect for some of Sun's technical achievements, I've also thought that their iconoclasm and NIH-syndrome has been a big hobble on them.

Reading the parent's "Are you providing leadership in LDAP/Directory Services? Nope.", I'm reminded of the 1997-8 timeframe, when Novell was literally begging Sun to port NDS (now eDirectory) to Solaris. Sun diddled and dawdled and finally, in exasperation, Novell did it themselves. Now Novell's Identity Manager) gives my shop the ability to unify user account management across our Solaris, Linux, NetWare and Windoze platforms. No thanks to Sun's foot-dragging and obstructionism, tho.

Scott McNealy needs to learn the same lesson that Larry Ellison needs to learn: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Like the parent, I started as a Sun admin in the mid-90s (1995, with SunOS v4.1.4_U2 on SS 10), and as much as I have respect for some of Sun's technical achievements, I've also thought that their iconoclasm and NIH-syndrome has been a big hobble on them.

Reading the parent's "Are you providing leadership in LDAP/Directory Services? Nope.", I'm reminded of the 1997-8 timeframe, when Novell was literally begging Sun to port NDS (now eDirectory) to Solaris. Sun diddled and dawdled and finally, in exasperation, Novell did it themselves. Now Novell's Identity Manager) gives my shop the ability to unify user account management across our Solaris, Linux, NetWare and Windoze platforms. No thanks to Sun's foot-dragging and obstructionism, tho.

Scott McNealy needs to learn the same lesson that Larry Ellison needs to learn: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Well it's still free in the same sense as Fedora et. al. in that you can download it here: http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/d ownloads/ftp/int_mirrors.html Like most distros you can of course pay the money and get media + support. $99.95 is still pretty steep for this but you don't HAVE to pay for it.

suse 9.3 which i believe shipped yesterday has beagle! http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/b eagle.html/

Hi Thomas,

First of all I would like to thank you for bringing to my attention the fact that Fluendo are working hard to support proprietary plugins. Hopefully this will work out and will have a happier ending than other commercial forays into open source / commercial collabortion. Of course what will be interesting is what the eventual licence of these plugins will be (if I pay for a plugin on one distro and I migrated to a free solution do I have permission to copy my plugins across too?)

However I take issue with some of the points in your post:

It is no coincidence that projects like mplayer, vlc, and xine do not get shipped by most distributions...
Xine was shipped by SUSE (at least up to 9.2) and Mandrake/Mandriva (up to 10.2RC2) last time I checked. Red Hat are not the be all and end all.

GStreamer platform is pluggable to the point where the libraries can be put in or taken out without breaking the applications
Both SUSE and (old) Mandrake (watch out Mandriva) shipped Xine without potentially dubious plugins. A while ago I added Theora after the original install.

(If the BBC can do it [make content available in free formats], so can they :))
Are we thinking of the same BBC? The BBC I'm thinking of does not make much (Radio 1, Listen to 6Music) of its content available on free formats. Where are you getting this from? Last I saw the BBC had dropped its ogg trials never to return. This is surely a damning example of how Free media formats are doomed to failure. Nice to see Novell using those Free media formats too eh?

I concede that there is a slim chance such formats may become popular on devices like mobile phones but I think between patents and big media companies if they did get a toehold then they would eventually be squeezed out.

The basic problem though is that people (big or small) don't want to provide content in formats that most people can't already play (notice the shift away from RealPlayer towards Windows Media). Without DRM support and the promise that it won't be broken (whether those promises can be kept or not) there is no reason for big media to look at Free formats and almost no Free media format will have critical mass like MP3 did (which itself was not Free). Grassroots stuff is nice but most people aren't listening/watching it and don't really care to.

Elton John helps raise money for Gore
September 20, 2000

ATHERTON, Calif. (Reuters) - Flamboyant rock star Elton John, making his first foray into American politics after three decades of performing in the United States, endorsed Vice President Al Gore at a ritzy Silicon Valley fund-raiser... The fund-raiser, at the home of Novell Corp. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, raised $3.25 million for the Democratic National Committee...

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/0 9/20/campaign.gore.john.reut/

Gore television network debuts in August
April 5, 2005

San Francisco, CA (UPI) -- The television network headed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore debuts Aug. 1 and will feature short-form content rather than traditional long form news... Current has partnered with Internet search engine Google, executives said, to produce news updates on topics being searched on the Internet...

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050405-1 03500-6028r.htm

>rhn is a big one.

You can do that with quite a few tools (the good ones are commercial but have better features). You could use CentOS (as RHEL) with 3rd party management tools.

>Being able to manage all of my system updates from one web page, knowing the exact status of the machines. They also have a higher level of RHN that allows even more management, like provisioning new installs.

Again, you can get better tools from companies that have been doing that longer than RH.

1. Novell
http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/
2. Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technol ogies/management/ads/default.mspx
3. Altiris, Opsware, etc.

Yahoo! Yet Another Distro.

Just what we need to increase confusion. Look - I agree that there some justification to put this out, but do we *really* need yet another distro? A few well placed distros, each appealing to a market segment would be much better than this helter skelter rush for every man and their (yellow) dog to have a distro.

Wouldn't it be better to have 3 distros, one for techies, one for desktops and one for servers with paid with support. I know that those of you who use distro 'X' will yell "But {Slack,SuSE,SuSEE} doesn't quite match my requirements". Those 3 key distro's are very good, and I'm sure if theres some feature on some other distro, it will be available on one of these when all that hacking talent goes to just support them.

I'd rather we were all talking about and backing 3 very very good distros than over 100 quite good ones.

Management of Novell Desktop Linux via ZEN is coming.

Novell is really doing some impressive stuff, it's taking time, but slow and steady wins the race.

Quicly peeked at the 10-K. The company sold 600M in debentures last year due 2024, plus recorded income of 447M from settling a lawsuit with Microsoft last year. That accounts for a big chunk of the cash on hand.

The cash flows statement looked good, with general operating bringing in 440M in the first quarter, most comming from net income. Unless things take a big turn for the worse, that's plenty to service/retire the debt. I don't have the time to dig deeper, but at first glance, this doesn't look like a company on the ropes.

what can the average Linux user do to help

That is simpel. Buy the SUSE versions, instead of waiting for the free (as in beer) FTP version. Pre-order 9.3 Pro. It will be out mid april.

I wanted to clarify the prices.
SLES is not 999 per server, it's $349 per server. It's just about the same price of RHEL Basic Edition (URLs: http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/compare/server / and http://www.novell.com/products/linuxenterpriseserv er/pricing.html)

There is already a Novell certification for Linux, it's called the Novell Certified Linux Engineer (CLE).

The certification is adapted from a SuSE Linux certification programme, but with more LDAP/eDirectory and Netware/Linux interoperation coverage (e.g. hinting that they'll be skilled to migrate from Netware to Linux).

You might want to take a look at http://www.novell.com/training/certinfo/cle/ some time :)

It's not just open source stupid!

And I say that with total humor.

I prefer to see more Novell in the marketshare whether it's open or closed source. Hopefully Linux users support will push them to open more technology like some companies have done, but overall Novell products are a lot better than there rivals. The eDirectory platform is better than Active Directory in many respects, including but not limited to security, cross-platform support (duh) and reliability ... scalability, database size, license cost, standards based transactions and data handling...

You get the picture.

If you were a Suse fan, stick in there. If you are a developer help out, open communication with Novell. Ignore the articles and push through the filter. Find situations where it works and implement it. I belive that eDirectory combined with what is now the Novell Linux Desktop will someday be a force to reckon with in the enterprise space.

If you've managed or designed a network you appreciate the technology Novell can offer you. I know many system administrators who would love to return to a day where the enterprise desktop isn't anything but an interface to work applications. I'd prefer a Linux desktop I could roll out with the features and security measures I want and be able to manage all the functionality at the server. It's the current Windows server sales pitch, but Novell's is better.

But then again, technology doesn't win in the board room. If it did Novell wouldn't be in a cash crunch now. But then again, I'm becoming a shill and ignoring some of the bad decisions Novell has made - either way, support them.

Taking on SCO would help their cause quite a bit as well...

When I think of Disaster, Linux, and WordPerfect, I think of their attempt to port the entire suite to Java. Attempting to capitalize on "write once, run anywhere," and wholeheartedly ignoring the reality of such systems, it ran in a JVM in a browser window. Unfortunately, the computers trying to run the thing couldn't ignore reality, and as such loading a heavily stripped down version of WP took several minutes. It also couldn't take advatage of OS API's, and had to reinvent the wheel many times. I've spoken to a coder from that project, who says it was basically a hell that they knew management wasn't going to let them out of until one or both of them were dead. As Corel laid the lot of them off, it would appear it was both.

You can still try out their beta if you would like, though ironically for a "write once run anywhere" suite you'll be hard pressed to find a browser old enough to run it.

The subsequent version of WP was recoded in C and C++.

IBM already has an investment in Novell but don't expect to see IBM buy them unless they've got something compelling to offer.

Strange, there was a link to this article on the front page of /. about two weeks ago. To quote

SuSE Linux Professional is geared for desktop computer tasks such as word processing, programming or playing digital videos. And Novell hopes Windows users wanting to breathe new life into older computers will be interested.

SuSE Linux Professional 9.3 also adds the Linphone software for voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP); the Firefox Web browser; and the F-Spot photo organizer software. And it comes with the latest versions of graphical interface software, Gnome 2.10 and KDE 3.4.

should have been this.

You can do all that in Linux. That's the whole point of Novell's ZENWorks product.

trying to be like these people:

Novell Public Service Announcement

Enjoy,

SUSE 9.3 is almost ready. In fact, you can preorder it.

The SUSE name isn't dead, it's still around. NLD is a gnome based distribution based on SUSE with commercial fonts, and a tweaked office suite.

The list is barely active. There only a couple of posts per day with most of the questions going unanswered.

The latest version of Evolution that ships with the latest version of Novell Linux, SuSE 9.2 Professional, is Evolution 2.0.1.

Evolution 2.0.1 is a buggy version that fails to upgrade older message stores more often than not.
Has a cappy interface compared to 1.x versions.
Missing features that were available in 1.x
New features do not work or are not complete.

I wish Miguel would drop the Mono mess and come back to Evolution. It has turned to crap!

SUSE 9.3 will have KDE 3.4 as well. Out mid of April. here a biassed review. Press release

SUSE 9.3 will have KDE 3.4 as well. Out mid of April. here a biassed review. Press release

it seems to me that if you are looking for a job in a large company having a name like novell on your certification list might make some folks take notice. novell's certified linux program is pretty decent and is backed by a big name (well, used to be a bigger name, but they are still well known).

in addition it will tell the person that you aren't just adept at linux but using linux in a real business environment, where novell networks are usually found which imho makes the novell cert more meaningful than a redhat cert...

In response to "Which one is the easiest/cheapest to obtain?", I would say Linux+. I have it and obtained it with minimal study, but much hands-on experience. Is it too easy, no, I am just saying that if you are a regular power user, you should be able to peruse the objectives and take the test. A note of caution: Linux+ is not and end, it is a beginning. After obtaining it, I went to RHCT (Red Hat Certified Technician) then RHCE (both significantly more challenging, but not impossible with a lot of hands-on experience).

In response to "Which is the mostly highly regarded in the industry?", it depends on your industry. Red Hat and LPI are both highly "recognized" along with Novell's Certified Linux Professional and Certified Linux Engineer (http://www.novell.com/training/certinfo/#cert/).

To sum, it depends is lame, agreed, but when I began down this path, I earned Linux+, obtained an entry level Linux SA position, then went to training (paid for by employer) and now sit in a mid to senior level SA position.

I believe the path I took was worth it, but the important thing is to take the plunge, do somethinhg and then move around.

...gondarlinux

cheer. I use to be a loyal Red Hat user (yes I paid for the distro), but after being abandoned by Red Hat I switched to Suse. Give it a try. It is so much better than Fedora/Red Hat. You can get it for free here

I'm hoping they will release it as an installable distro at some point. The demo scripts worked great for patching different applications through jackd w/ ALSA. Very cool.

Any thoughts on other stuff that could be usefully added to it?

I think there's been a GNU/Linux-native NDS implementation for a while now: