NetWare-on-Linux Release Due a Year Ahead of Schedule

BrainShare attendees laud Novell's revival as Linux strategy unfolds

By Matt Hamblen

March 29, 2004 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - SALT LAKE CITY -- The next version of Novell Inc.'s NetWare, to be renamed Open Enterprise Server, is now expected to be released by the end of this year -- a full year ahead of schedule.
After the release of OES, which will be a stack of services running on both the NetWare and Linux kernels, NetWare won't go forward as a stand-alone network operating system, Novell confirmed at its BrainShare user conference here last week. The stack includes file, print, storage, directory, Web development and other services .
The company also announced the availability in mid-April of an open beta of ZENworks 6.5 to manage both Windows and Linux desktops.
The event's 6,000 attendees appeared to be overwhelmingly supportive of Novell's adoption of Linux. Older NetWare users said they came to the show to learn about the new Linux management and operating system capabilities now being offered by Novell, while many younger Linux developers said they were glad to have Linux distributed by a major vendor with global sales and service forces.
Dale Llewellyn, manager of enterprise applications at SPX Corp., said the Charlotte, N.C.-based industrial products manufacturer next month will deploy Novell software on 27 Linux-based servers. The $2 million project, in which SPX will use Novell's Nsure and Extend products for secure identity management, is expected to lower the company's IT administration costs, he said.


Brainshare's 6,000 attendees — old and young alike — appeared to be overwhelmingly supportive of Novell's adoption of Linux.

The directory services servers at SPX run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, but an eventual migration to OES is "not out of the question," Llewellyn said. OES will run the SUSE Linux kernel that Novell gained with its acquisition of SUSE Linux AG in January .
SPX acquired 26 businesses last year and sought a cost-effective way to integrate operations, including 40 ERP systems, with a focus on secure identity management, Llewellyn said.
Brian Moss, senior systems engineer at Cardinal Glass Industries Inc. in Eden Prairie, Minn., said he came to BrainShare to learn all he could about the open-source MySQL database, which he wants to use to replace Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server as a means of lowering costs. The glass manufacturer has about 80 servers running NetWare and Novell ZENworks products that serve 1,000 employees, he said.
"I just hope Novell will keep going with this Linux vision," said Moss, who began using NetWare in the 1980s. "It's definitely positive."
Fredrik Carlsson, an integrator at Iftech Network AB in Goteborg, Sweden, took

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