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It has been many years since I travelled to BrainShare in the few days before the event.

Like Ron van Herk I used to spend a week in Utah prior to the event; now I live in Utah.

This year I have been travelling and visiting customers and working at the CeBIT exhibition in Hannover, Germany.

I am travelling through Frankfurt airport - and the plane has many people travelling to BrainShare. Novell bags and people are everywhere.

On the same flight are several Novell colleagues from Germany, also Novell customers and partners.

It is very strange travelling to BrainShare; there is a certain excitement building.

Written at: Frankfurt airport, Germany

What does it mean?

For those at BrainShare - take your camera; when you see the sign - email me the picture at ezs@novell.com

Novell just made an announcement regarding the next version of ZENworks here at CeBIT here in Hannover, Germany.

The first news - there are no more codenames. "Pulsar" has a real name: ZENworks Configuration Management

Also a great quote from a customer - Virgin Radio, part of Scottish Media Group - who is testing ZENworks Configuration Management as part of the beta:

“We installed ZENworks and were up and running in no time,” said David Jones, Head of Technology Services at Virgin Radio. “This elegant solution installs quickly and is easy to use. ZENworks Configuration Management simplifies desktop management, delivering the functionality and control that meet our user's needs and work habits, while reducing the overall effort and cost of managing our desktops.”

I visited with Virgin Radio on Tuesday in London; they are a fantastic flagship customer. I'm sure you will be hearing more from them in the near future.

Phew.

It's been a few weeks since I posted anything - so here's my wrap up of the last few weeks.

First - we just finished the release of ZENworks Pulsar Beta 2. That should be in the hands of our worldwide beta partners today. I've been working with this code closely in the last few weeks - and it looks stunning.

For those at BrainShare next week we will be showing a lot of this release. I've been asked many times about names - and that information will actually be available in the next couple of days.

I'm currently in London, UK meeting with one of our very active beta customers; next stop for me is the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. That's where we are planning to do some very cool stuff announcing more about ZENworks Pulsar. Watch this space!

Later this week I will update on the news from CeBIT; also give a preview of Beta 2 and what's in store for those at BrainShare.

Written at: London, UK

I've written a few times about the cool additions to ZENworks that are written and released by ENGL in the UK.

In the last month I have been working closely with the ENGL team - and they have some very cool things that are coming along.

First they will be at BrainShare - showing their integration with ZENworks - and also running some technical sessions. You can read more at ZENworks Cool Solutions.

The session list includes:

• Changing the computer name with ENGL Zim
• Using ZENworks Image-safe Data to store ENGL Imaging Toolkit Build parameters
• Advanced ENGL Zim scripting and forms
• Customizing the ENGL Ztoolkit build process using custom scripts
• Configuring multiprocessor/AMD processor support in the base image
• ENGL Imaging Toolkit 5.0 preview

The ENGL Imaging Toolkit version 5 promises to be a valuable addition to ZENworks Pulsar and make lives much easier for those looking to deploy Windows Vista.

I'll not spoil their scoop at BrainShare - keep reading for more!

Written at: Beijing, China

We met today as a team of Cool Bloggers and recognised our first year of Cool Blogs.

Three bloggers were called out for their contributions:

• Ron van Herk
• Alex Evans
• Ken Muir

All three have been leaders on Cool Blogs - writing dozens of good quality posts that get you - our readers - involved. Ken got a special mention for his post on GroupWise Linux Client sneak peek and futures.

One final award was made to our 'backroom technical guru' - Jared - who keeps our servers updated, secure and running happily.

Thanks to all of the Cool Blogs team - also thanks to all of our readers.

Written at: Provo, UT