John Dragoon’s Blog

On Tuesday of this week we announced the pre-release availability of our upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise products. We made available for download the Server and Desktop versions and invited the world to be among the first to install, test and enjoy the next great SUSE Linux Enterprise release. This pre-release contains all the functionality of the regular product but is not the final product. The final product is due out very shortly, summer 2006.

The response in 48 short hours has been nothing short of amazing. Customers have requested and we have downloaded over 12,500 copies of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and over 6,800 copies of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.

I invite you to come see for yourself at www.novell.com/linux While you’re there, check out the industry buzz tab for recent reviews and commentary on the product. Good stuff.

Thank you for your support….have a great weekend.

John

Fear sells….or that’s what certain software executives seem to think.

There’s been a lot of great press about our new SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (currently beta release candidate 3) and scheduled for general availability in July 2006. I guess it was only a matter of time before those most threatened by Linux’ general success and the buzz about our new desktop felt the need to marginalize Linux desktops and the entire open source community in the process. In case you missed it, here are the “highlights” of what Bill Hilf, Microsoft’s General Manager of Competitive Strategy, had to say in a CRN June 22 article.

According to Mr. Hilf, “Linux isn’t a threat to Windows on the desktop and is losing steam on the server…” Further, Hilf declares that, “…pundits have predicted for years that Linux will gain momentum on the desktop, but that won’t happen…” Well I for one think you the customer ought to decide. We are in the first inning of a very long game and it’s a little early to call it for the threat of rain. Heck, the sun is just starting to shine and the outlook is bright.

It gets better though. After curiously declaring the Linux market stalled or worse irrelevant, he takes a shot at the thousands of developers around the world making Linux the secure and reliable platform it has become. To quote Mr. Hilf, “The magic of open-source software is not the software. It has nothing to do with the code at all. Most open-source code is terribly inferior to commercial software code.”

Wow! Not only is that ridiculous, it’s insulting to the worldwide community developing the code and the thousands of customers around the world who are using Linux at the highest levels of their enterprise. And I’m not just talking about low risk edge deployments. I’m talking about large scale financial service firms and other Fortune 500 customers who know a thing or two about quality of code and support. Perhaps in the end, this Microsoft employee is being provocative for effect.

Fortunately for all involved, the market decides these things. We don’t for a minute underestimate the competition. I think the market is searching for true value and choice. If you could get a competitive desktop alternative at 1/10 the price of the alternative, don’t you have an obligation to at least investigate? Well you can, and it’s called SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. There are plenty of great third party reviews on this alternative and I encourage you to check them out. My colleague has posted a few links of recent reviews on his PR blog.

In the meantime, let’s not let the fear, uncertainty and doubt campaign cloud the legitimate choice in the marketplace. Fear doesn’t sell. Choice, value and opportunity do.

And to the thousands of developers working tirelessly on Linux and open-source projects. You do great work. Thank you.

John

ps. Check out the latest press on SUSE Linux Enterprise destkop on DL.TV Click on the openSUSE review which is our community edition of Linux and precedes our enterprise version coming out in July 2006.

It’s been a very busy day, but I just wanted to take time out to let you know that I am very excited about Ron Hovsepian’s new role as Novell’s new Chief Executive Officer.  I’ve known Ron for years –  we worked together at IBM – and I can tell you, every time he takes the reins of anything, great things happen.  He’s already done amazing things here – he was key to developing our operating strategy, streamlining our operations and most importantly restoring the customer focus that is required to compete and win in the market place.  This new role will give him an even broader platform from which to accelerate our execution. 

As exciting as this news is, Ron would be the first to tell you he can’t do it alone.  The good news is, he won’t have to.  Our 5,000 employees and 5,000 partners are focused on winning and delivering value in the marketplace.  As always, the customer will be the final arbiter. We don’t intend to disappoint.

I believe you’ll see a transparency and a focus on winning that is rare among technology companies. It starts at the top but I can assure you it’s a passion and commitment that we all share. You’ll see a confident Novell that is proud of its heritage, passionate about the present and optimistic for the future.

Look forward to some aggressive, exciting action from Ron and the rest of the Novell Team.

John

The press has picked up on a nice recent step forward for Novell in building out our ecosystem around Linux. Dell has elevated SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to a Tier 1 operating system, the same level as Microsoft and Red Hat. Although Dell has made SUSE Linux Enterprise Server available to its customers as an option on their PowerEdge server hardware for over a year and a half, the move to Tier 1 status does add several benefits, including deeper EMC certification, integration with Dell’s OpenManage software, and pre-install of SUSE Linux Enterprise on Dell servers. This makes it much easier for the Dell sales force to sell and recommend SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a truly robust solution. More importantly, in my mind, this move by Dell reflects growing customer interest in SUSE Linux. Any move by a partner to embrace a platform has to be customer driven. As Linux is moving more firmly into the data center, customers are seeing the benefits of SUSE Linux. We’re pleased by Dell’s move, and think it’ll be positive for our customers, as well.

John

Peter Yared offered a muse last week on big company open source behavior patterns (http://peteryared.blogspot.com/2006/05/big-company-open-source-behavior.html). In Peter’s view, as open source challenges the existing business models of many large infrastructure software firms, different companies have reacted in unique ways. In his words, the behavior patterns range from “Join the Party” to “Run Like Hell” to “Screw with it” to “Open Source Trashcan”. Novell is the example he cites for “Buy Your Way In”.

As in most things, he’s only partly right.

I’ll not comment on the other companies mentioned but a more appropriate behavior pattern classification for Novell would read, “Bought their way in and expanded the party”. It’s certainly true that our acquisitions of Ximian and SUSE accelerated our participation in the Linux and Open Source world beyond what we could have done in a short amount of time on our own. But that was only the beginning of the story. Our acquisitions in this space brought some of the most talented open source engineers on the planet. These engineers don’t just work on Novell’s agenda. Their making serious and significant contributions to key open source projects including the Linux kernel, Bandit, BetterDesktop, GNOME, YaST, Mono, Evolution, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Xen…..you get the picture. Not only are we giving back to the open source community through these projects, but we are actively involved in the standard bodies driving and defining open source including OASIS, the W3C and the Java Community Process among others. To find out more about Open Source and Novell vist: http://developer.novell.com/opensource/index.html

In addition to our talented engineers working on these important initiatives, we also put our money where our mouth is. After our acquisition of AppArmor, an application security tool for Linux, we decided it would be in the best interest of the open source industry at large if we open sourced the code. We did and now others are using it as well (as are we in SUSE Linux Enterprise 10). Similarly, we open sourced hundreds of thousands of lines of NetMail to jumpstart Hula, an open source calendar and email project.

And unlike many of the companies mentioned in Peter Yared’s blog, we actually use open source technologies to run significant parts of Novell’s business from the desktop to the data center. Not only did we save a lot of money in the process but we became experts at using and deploying open source in a mixed source environment. It’s a first hand experience we are now sharing with our clients as they seek the best ways to integrate the innovation that is Linux and Open Source into their environments.

So yes, we bought our way into the open source party but like any good party goer, we’re not only bringing our own food,drink and music, we’re making the party better for all. And this is one party where there’s no limit to the guests.

Why not see what all the fun is about?