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Have you had a look at Novell's Zenworks suite? Zenworks

i love linux as much as everyone else but in reality there isn't a product yet out side of exchange that gives the amount of seemless intgration that exchange gives.

So what's wrong with the following products?
http://www.egroupware.org/
http://www.group-office.com/
http://mirror.open-xchange.org/ox/EN/community/
http://www.scalix.com/
http://www.kolab.org/
http://www.opengroupware.org/
http://www.zimbra.com/
http://www.openconnector.org/
Non-free alternatives:
http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/
http://bynari.net/index.php?id=7
http://www.stalker.com/CommuniGatePro/
http://www.officecalendar.com/
http://www.samsungcontact.com/
http://www.zarafa.com/
http://www.postpath.com/

I look forward to reading your reply.

Work for Novell? The Novell-Microsoft agreement does not protect Novell in anyway from being sued. It protects Novell's clients.

Now if only we could get a true match for Windows Active Directory. So that the software on Windows Desktop machines, works EXACTLY as if the environment was powered by Windows servers, Exchange for e-mail, etc.

Have a look here: http://www.novell.com/products/openenterpriseserver/domain_services.html I have installed this product in a dev environment and for all intent and purposes it is Active Directory running on SLES 10. Connected XP clients to the domain and everything I can see is identical including administration using MMC. Pretty cool software.

That seems to be the message Microsoft is sending

I used to think it was mass-hysteria when I heard people say what you just said. Until a while back I stumbled upon this on Novell's site:

This protection extends far beyond our broad Novell Indemnification Program; you also benefit from the Novell and Microsoft patent cooperation agreement. It ensures that when you buy any Novell productsâ"whether Linux-based or proprietaryâ"you receive a patent covenant from Microsoft.

And:

Under the Novell and Microsoft patent cooperation agreement, when you buy any Novell productsâ"whether Linux-based or proprietaryâ"you receive a patent covenant not to sue from Microsoft. Microsoft's covenant not to sue a Novell customer applies to a Novell offering independent of the channel of distribution and licensing terms, and whether any code is covered by GPLv2 or GPLv3.

Here is the direct link: http://www.novell.com/licensing/ntap/

Suffice it to say, I no longer use OpenSUSE :)

OSS lacks QA - show me a OSS project that government is likely to use that has any quality assurances. the big font stating "use at own risk" is a massive turn off for government and rightly so.

on your home version yes. a customer as big as the uk government? they have bulk licensing terms that ensure security fixes (provided they stay on the upgrade tread mill of course).

funny, because if you wern't trolling you might be aware of these guys:
http://www.redhat.com/products/
http://www.canonical.com/services/support
http://www.novell.com/support/microsites/microsite.do ...

such security fixes could dry up overnight on a OSS project. that's the whole point i'm trying to get through to people, start thinking like you've got 100 million dollar projects relying on this stuff. who are you going to trust this to, some guy called bob on sourceforge, or a multi billion dollar company with resources to get you out of the shit?

Well i know for a fact that a lot of the software government departments use is home* rolled, so if the OSS support for a project did dry up, and for whatver reason there was no major vendor supporting it, they could support it themselves.

*by home rolled i ofc mean they get the lowest bidder to build it.

start thinking like you've got 100 million dollar projects relying on this stuff. who are you going to trust this to, some guy called bob on sourceforge,

hummor me troll, why is a closed patch from some guy at microsoft better than an open patch by some guy at redhat/canonical/novell/sun/etc

So run Xen clustered - http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/18831.html

Once you have the initial config mastered its easy to deploy to other servers with Autoyast.

I'd also say it was enterprise ready - certainly a *lot* of our infrastructure is now hosted on it and is very stable unless we overload the nodes.

For sure you can SLED with your new machines, but you might face heat from those purist advocates of Linux.

I will say that although I have not had the joy of opening Office 2000 files with OO.o 3.0, I do recall there being some serious issues between powerpoint slides.

I've heard that about prior versions of OO.o, but I don't know if the same is true of 3.x. I have had problems with some older Word documents not showing some images when opened in OO.o, including 3.0. If your main concern is viewing or converting old files, why not keep Office 2000 around? What's the point of getting rid of it completely?

Just use OpenOffice.org to create all new or revised files, as they can be opened universally, in part because free ODF plug-ins and converters are everywhere. If you have an older file that needs a revision, convert it to an older or more consistent format (Office '95 and '97 formats work for me most of the time), and then open the converted file in OO.o, without losing any formatting or data. A variety of external or command-line format converters also exist, which are useful for batch converting legacy files.

I have several old copies of Office 2000 and 2003 floating around the office, mainly to convert between old file types ad-hoc. Microsoft also offers read-only Office document viewers and converters of their Office line, for free:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/HA010449811033.aspx

I think most of these tools, and some versions of the full MS Office Suites, also work on other OS platforms via WINE.

http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=31
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/differences/

I regrettably give you the option of getting Novell's OO.o distribution (here) in which you can install an extension for OpenXML.

Why the regret? Novell maintains a good package of OpenOffice installers and extensions. There are also Open Source ODF and OpenXML converters:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter

And OpenXML support comes with OpenOffice.org 3+ "out of the box":

http://blog.mypapit.net/2008/04/openofficeorg-30-supports-microsoft-openxml-docx.html

Going forward, the ability to convert almost every legacy document format that ever existed, to an International Standard like ODF, makes most file format differences a non-issue.

Not everyone has caught up with current standards, so we make it company policy to use ODF formats internally, but we convert files down to Office '97 or PDF when sharing them with external contacts. Everyone with any Office suite from the last 10 years can open our converted files without installations or issues.

I will say that although I have not had the joy of opening Office 2000 files with OO.o 3.0, I do recall there being some serious issues between powerpoint slides.

I've heard that about prior versions of OO.o, but I don't know if the same is true of 3.x. I have had problems with some older Word documents not showing some images when opened in OO.o, including 3.0. If your main concern is viewing or converting old files, why not keep Office 2000 around? What's the point of getting rid of it completely?

Just use OpenOffice.org to create all new or revised files, as they can be opened universally, in part because free ODF plug-ins and converters are everywhere. If you have an older file that needs a revision, convert it to an older or more consistent format (Office '95 and '97 formats work for me most of the time), and then open the converted file in OO.o, without losing any formatting or data. A variety of external or command-line format converters also exist, which are useful for batch converting legacy files.

I have several old copies of Office 2000 and 2003 floating around the office, mainly to convert between old file types ad-hoc. Microsoft also offers read-only Office document viewers and converters of their Office line, for free:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/HA010449811033.aspx

I think most of these tools, and some versions of the full MS Office Suites, also work on other OS platforms via WINE.

http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=31
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/differences/

I regrettably give you the option of getting Novell's OO.o distribution (here) in which you can install an extension for OpenXML.

Why the regret? Novell maintains a good package of OpenOffice installers and extensions. There are also Open Source ODF and OpenXML converters:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter

And OpenXML support comes with OpenOffice.org 3+ "out of the box":

http://blog.mypapit.net/2008/04/openofficeorg-30-supports-microsoft-openxml-docx.html

Going forward, the ability to convert almost every legacy document format that ever existed, to an International Standard like ODF, makes most file format differences a non-issue.

Not everyone has caught up with current standards, so we make it company policy to use ODF formats internally, but we convert files down to Office '97 or PDF when sharing them with external contacts. Everyone with any Office suite from the last 10 years can open our converted files without installations or issues.

...getting Novell's OO.o distribution (here) in which you can install an extension for OpenXML.

Note that the MSOpenXML plugin is a seperate download from that same page. Free registration required for either.

The installation instructions for the newest version (2.5) of the MSOpenXML plugin claim that it will work with Novell's OOo (for Windows or SUSE) or with Go-OO. But, branding aside, is there really any difference between the Novell builds and the Go-OO builds?

Microsoft Office 2000 to Open Office 3.0

I will say that although I have not had the joy of opening Office 2000 files with OO.o 3.0, I do recall there being some serious issues between powerpoint slides. Some weird rendering going on in OO.o for what reason I do not know. In my line of work, powerpoint is perversely pervasive--to the point of alarm for me. If this is true for you, do some testing before taking the plunge!

Are there any reliable ways to view/edit/save a document saved in the OpenXML format through Open Office ...

I regrettably give you the option of getting Novell's OO.o distribution (here) in which you can install an extension for OpenXML.

The best recommendation I can give you is to do this change only if you can assure that it will not hinder your ability to serve your customer or detract largely from productivity.

Microsoft Office 2000 to Open Office 3.0

I will say that although I have not had the joy of opening Office 2000 files with OO.o 3.0, I do recall there being some serious issues between powerpoint slides. Some weird rendering going on in OO.o for what reason I do not know. In my line of work, powerpoint is perversely pervasive--to the point of alarm for me. If this is true for you, do some testing before taking the plunge!

Are there any reliable ways to view/edit/save a document saved in the OpenXML format through Open Office ...

I regrettably give you the option of getting Novell's OO.o distribution (here) in which you can install an extension for OpenXML.

The best recommendation I can give you is to do this change only if you can assure that it will not hinder your ability to serve your customer or detract largely from productivity.

if the choice was mine I would spend a little money and get the Novell eDirectory

Novell eDirectory 8.7 is free for upto 250,000 users.. http://www.novell.com/products/edirectory/customer_license.htm not only free, but it's standards based and runs on many OS's Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Windows etc and has a fairly large support community.

job done

It really depends. If you mean "drop-in replacement for Exchange while keeping Outlook," then very few exist. If, however, you mean a client-server combination which matches the functionality, then there are tens of replacements, both hosted, and not. Groupwise and Lotus Notes are well-supported options.

It really depends. If you mean "drop-in replacement for Exchange while keeping Outlook," then very few exist. If, however, you mean a client-server combination which matches the functionality, then there are tens of replacements, both hosted, and not. Groupwise and Lotus Notes are well-supported options.

> Novell has already done this in several viral videos, just do a youtube search.

Or download then direct from Novell in MPEG or OGG:

http://www.novell.com/linux/meetlinux/

Like your comments, PJs are nothing but philosophical hand-waving.

In no way does her posts nor your reply support your assertion that OpenSUSE is somehow magically 'unsafe'.

It still looks like GPL to me.

Your comment about MS suing you is even more far-fatched.

The concept of MS suing linux users is pretty darn far-fetched. But if you're really worried about it, then you WANT to be using Novell, as then you are specifically and quite effectively covered by Novell's indemnification program.

http://www.novell.com/licensing/ntap/

http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse/sysreqs.html

        * Processor: Intelâ"Pentium 1-4 or Xeon; AMDâ"Duron, Athlon, Athlon XP, Athlon MP, Athlon 64, Sempron or Opteron
        * Main memory: At least 256 MB; 512 MB recommended
        * Hard disk: At least 500 MB for minimal system; 3 GB recommended for standard system
        * Sound and graphics cards: Supports most modern sound and graphics cards

The KDE 3.x series has benefited from a lot of improvements in speed and memory usage. I would expect 256 MB to get you a barely-functional desktop that swaps every time you open Firefox or OpenOffice.org, and 512 MB would run a few basic business apps without problems.

Well I guess Novell could stop funding and or participating in any of these projects

And you appreciate that Novell went to bat for the entire Linux community by pretty much single handedly cutting off SCO's lawsuit, which if it had prevailed would have gutted Linux for the most part and pretty much put and end to the Linux movement in general? Aww that is so nice of you and yet you now bite the hand that feeds you.

With friends like you, hell no one needs enemies

Novell has, without exaggeration done more for the acceptance of Linux in business in the last 3 years then Richard Stillman, Linus, Red Hat or any of them. Get a clue.

The fact that this allows Novell to improve, however small, Linux's penetration into the data center and corporations doesn't interest them either.

Fuck 'em.

Maybe. Currently, Novell seem more interested in taking customers from Red Hat than "increasing Linux penetration" i.e. taking customers from MS. Here's a link. With friends like Novell, why does Linux need enemies like MS? Of course, MS and Novell are all sucky-face Koombaiya buddies now. Gag. Spoken as a former paying SuSE user and current (but probably not for long) Novell stockholder. I appreciated what Novell did to stop MS's old sweetheart SCO, but now Novell seems to have joined MS as an enemy of freedom.

Fuck 'em.

Go-oo looks interesting. Can you explain more about how it relates to Novell -- or doesn't? How is it different from this Novell version?

The thing that kills me about Sun's version of Ooo is that on Windows, it demands that every user click through a EULA. I teach physics in a computer lab at a school where every Windows box gets its hard disk restored from a standard image every night, so if a student wants to use Ooo, he has to click through all the multiple steps of agreeing to the Eula every single day that he uses the software. Needless to say, I'm having a hard time motivating any of them to use it instead of MS Office.

According to a thread on Novell's forums, they and Red Hat will be back porting security updates to Firefox 2 until they release new versions of their Enterprise Linux products. http://forums.novell.com/novell-product-support-forums/suse-linux-enterprise-desktop-sled/sled-updates/336654-firefox-support-2-x-ends-december-what-then.html The thread also contains a link to a guide to getting Firefox 3 running on SLES/SLED 10.

And if, for whatever reason, you prefer a Novell-branded version, you can download it for free from Novell (Registration required, windows only -- they figure if you want the Linux version you'll spring for SUSE Enterprise Desktop; it's not even available in OpenSUSE.)

You can also download the deal-with-the-devil MS-OOXML file format translator, if you need to save in the .docx etc formats. Again, it's Windows or SUSE only. It works pretty well with Word stuff; haven't tried any of the others.

Or eDirectory

Most userspace apps, like OpenOffice, orderly open a file, write to it, then close it. close() is a potentially perfect place for the required hooks that solve the problem.

BTW, you mentioned fsync and sync. It seems that you fail to understand the problem. It's quite irrelevant when the data hits persistent storage, we're not discussing recovery strategies in case of hardware of system malfunction. We're not discussing concurrent writes, atomic transaction and all this mess.

We're talking about retrieving older versions of data which has been destroyed by perfectly valid, yet unintended/unwelcome user space operations, performed by a single user to a non-shared file (well, not shared in the sense it's not continuosly accessed by multiple parties - it can of course lie in a shared directory where it's written to by multiple people occasionally, but the chance of them writing at the same moment is minimal).

Concerning amount of space used for this feature - I think it should be configurable (e.g. maximum and minimum number of historical versions both per single file and globally per filesystem; maxmimum and minimum amount of used space - likewise).

Ten years ago I were using files shared from a Novell NetWare file server and the Windows explorer-integrated context menu had the tools to restore (salvage) their older versions, and the history it provided was clearly automatically purged, but it provided reasonably many backdated versions. There was also a command to manually purge older versions in that context menu.

Strange that nobody here refers to that Novell solution, it's been around for quite a long time now.

Try over six years:

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/trench/241.html#3

Groupwise and Evolution. You're welcome.

They better start hiring support personnel, because there will likely be profits to be had with service contracts. Maybe even a Redhat buyout/partnership

Doubt it. They're entering a crowded marketplace:

SuSE Linux OpenExchange
Open-xchange
Scalix (formerly known as HP OpenMail)

All of these implementations share one problem, which I believe this server also shares: they require an MAPI Connector module to be present in order to use them with Outlook, and that module is not free software. In fact, it is typically rather expensive.

Sounds like that is likely to change. No mainstream distribution is supporting it at this point as a first line file system AFAIK.

It's still supported (and, I believe, is the default option) for SUSE Enterprise.

None of the others have ever actively promoted it, so this looks very much like a "nothing has changed" situation to me.

Each license bought allows for tech support from Microsoft. Is there any such tech support from open source developers?

Of course there is.
https://www.redhat.com/apps/support/
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid
http://www.novell.com/support/product/products.do
http://www-03.ibm.com/linux/prod_svc.html ....

Didn't Novell sort this out years ago with something called 'transaction tracking' or was some kind of parallel universe?

"NetWare includes a transaction-monitoring feature called the Transaction Tracking System (TTS(TM))"

--

You seem to be using Microsoft Internet Explorer. Although this site is made up of valid HTML 4.01 and CSS2, when using Internet Explorer, the layout will be messed up, because Microsoft deliberately sabotages the CSS standard (among other things). I have no intention of including all sorts of work arounds for this. Do yourself a favor, get Firefox. It is more secure and much more convenient. Any other normal browser will do as well...

"Luckily, Linux is pretty good at not getting owned so it's a bit of a non-issue at the moment, but I dare say it's only a matter of time before someone starts targeting them as well." - by neokushan (932374) on Tuesday July 15, @06:12AM (#24193515)

Take a read(s), it's happened PLENTY of times, & Linux (even SeLinux bearing distros in their DEFAULT config) aren't somekind of "magical panacea", either:

----

Critical Security Hole in Linux Wi-Fi:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/15/1515259

Linux Kernel 2.6 Local Root Exploit:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/02/10/2011257.shtml

Major Security Hole In Samsung Linux Drivers:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/07/18/0319203.shtml :

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/01/24/1930207.shtml

Mystery Malware Affecting Linux/Apache Web Servers:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/10/03/2122220.shtml

SUSE Security Announcement: lprold (SUSE-SA:2003:0014):

http://www.novell.com/linux/security/advisories/2003_014_lprold.html

----

* That's just some (some might be patched now though, I did not check, but point is? They happen - bugs/vulns on *NIX period)... you weren't nearly as 'bad' as some Linux Penguin fanboys, but, I felt obligated to put out some data that keeps even your mild & actually decent reply, in check, to some degree (pointing out that Linux is NOT the "magic bullet"... heck, even BSD distros aren't).

APK

P.S.=> There's plenty more over @ SECUNIA.com for intance, in case you're interested, that's MORE CURRENT... open security vulnerablities are present in Linux still... e.g.->

http://secunia.com/search/?search=LINUX&w=1

You *NIX guys always try to "cut up" Windows on this note, but you often fail to acknowledge your systems/OS of choice is far from 100% "bugfree & bulletproof" too... apk

http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~wooters/persistentX.html

I've not tried this but it looks good.

Some for vnc
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/16011.html

With xinetd?
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Uk/uk.comp.os.linux/2006-02/msg00109.html

As stupid as the parent was being, this is actually kinda true. One of Novell's key locations is in Provo, Utah. Due to demographics alone, with about 61% of the population being Mormon, Novell most likely has a higher-than-average employ of Mormons. (Howard Tayler, of Schlock Mercenary fame, and a Mormon, used to work there)

perhaps if you read their actual CTO's blog, instead of someone related to mono development, you might find what you were looking for.

SuSE is a proponent of AppArmor, whereas Red Hat is big into SELinux. If you're big into security, this is a major difference.

http://www.novell.com/linux/security/apparmor/selinux_comparison.html
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SELinux

Elegant? Try using Heartbeat, OCFS2 and clustered Xen solutions (on top of the Linux iSCSI target/initiator and LVM and DRDB for snapshot and replication). Virtual machine failure with automatic restart and 300ms migration with remote site backup? Nice!

Novell do a really good implementation guide
here

http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/faq_opensource.html

http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft,-Novell-spar-over-Linux-agreement/2100-7344_3-6137444.html

Microsoft got Novell to agree to very very little :). This is a collaboration effort and customer indemnification.

http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/faq_opensource.html

http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft,-Novell-spar-over-Linux-agreement/2100-7344_3-6137444.html

Microsoft got Novell to agree to very very little :). This is a collaboration effort and customer indemnification.

That being said, regardless if you like Novell or not, they contribute to some of the most important and popular projects for F/OSS that if you use almost any distribution, you are touching daily.

Your assessment of the situation is flawed and incorrect. Please see the following as some proof: http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/ http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about_members.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_v._Novell http://www.novell.com/ctoblog/?p=54 So... In summation, if you use the Linux Kernel, SAMBA, Gnome, KDE or any numter of other F/OSS products/projects...thank Novell for their contributions.

"Windows 95 was awesome... but the first versions were crap the 95b was the best one"

Yea, it finally got back to a buggy version of Xtree, drDOS, Novell Netware and Win3.11 Yea I know you could do it with Citrix, but MS bought out Citrix didn't they .. :)

The main innovation being you could no longer load WinDOS from a Netware server onto a diskless client, you had to buy licenses and upgrade the memory and install a harddrive on each client, costing a lot if you were cash starved college.

Besides software roadmaps aren't meant to plan your business around. if that was the case more people would be upgrading to Vista. They are only for slowing down your competitors.

Users of Ubuntu LTS versions know that they'll be supported for at least 3 years on the desktop and at least 5 years on the server. Users of non-free (as in beer) versions of Novell/SUSE Linux know that they'll get at least 5 years of "general" support and an additional 2 years of "extended" support.

Users of Microsoft "business/pro" software know that they'll get at least 5 years of "mainstream" support and 5 additional years of "extended" support. Users of MS Windows can be reasonably assured that new versions of Office will work with their version of Windows as long as it's still in its "maintream" support phase. They also know that Windows desktop licenses will be available for at least 4 years after the date of general availability.

The one thing we all have to remember is that open source leads to new concepts and market opportunity for small development shops. Just ask Astrum Inc. http://www.astruminc.com/ what astrum did was to develop the first SUSE based Solution Stack using Novell technology. What they produced and what the independent testing reported was a beast of an appliance and Astrum published these reports on its website. This solution described at RSA is the first true Identity based encryption system that can target users who have access to critical data or compliant sensitive data and harden compliance based policies that are compliance mandated. Astrum then did a OEM with nCipher and converted the nCIpher HSM from a 32bit card to a true 64bit card with eDirectory integration. Now if that wasnâ(TM)t enough they then developed a key management system that never exposes any part of the key to a hacker outside the appliance and without making a customer change itâ(TM)s network or put agents on itâ(TM)s storage. I was very impressed as I spoke to representative from Astrum. Now according to nCipher as told to me at RSA this makes the Astrum solution the only solution to meet the up coming FIPS 3 compliance changes and make this appliance very unique in the market space. The problem: The concept from what I could gather was presented to Novell under NDA two years ago at the end of 2006 and promises of concept protection were made and agreements were signed and both worked with business units to ensure no competitive issues may arise. They did not! So Astrum shared with Novell executives the plan that at the end of the day for example map 8 of the PCI requirements to the appliance along with all the major compliances while having the ability to leverage all the security solutions sold by Novell or any other security software based solution that could sit in the network. What happened is Astrum became the first ever to develop and Novell based solution stack using SUSE enterprise server in a appliance only to have it stolen from them!.. Hence the following links. http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20080416/AQW05816042008-1.html http://www.novell.com/linux2/appliance/ So if the solution is potentially a market changing concept as Linux can be why expose a concept to a company like Novell who touts protection in the Open source community, of course they promise protection from Microsoft but who promises concept protection from Novell. When Novell realized the market impact of such a solution they have moved to slowly create competition for little Astrum who is coming to market with out any assistance as promised by Novell. This solution from what I hear from internal Novell had enough potential market impact that it changed a direction for a major software company like it did for Novell. Prior to 07 and from what I understand Novell couldnâ(TM)t spell compliance much less understands an appliance stack approach to compliancy and encryption. Develop for Novell on SUSE or jeOS, and expose a development and market plan, NO WAY!!! I really feel for these guys and have to ask why anyone would trust Novell and are they truly moving to a channel model.

http://www.novell.com/zh-cn/CN/news/press/microsoft-and-novell-extend-reach-of-interoperability-collaboration-to-china/

Thank you for your predictions, oh wise seer. Though I'm not sure if any of them will come true. However, I appreciate your unique interpretation of free software philosophy.

my bet is that they are re-skinning some "New Technology" they are involved with!

https://bugzilla.novell.com/index.cgi