Open Source @ Novell

The open source community creates innovative software.

As part of the open source community, Novell participates in the development of innovative software for your business.

Novell's contributions are part of the steady flow of improvements and innovation that goes into open source software.

Open source software is developed and driven by communities. As part of the community, Novell contributes to the unparalleled value and rapid innovation of the open source community. Even though cost is a key driver of open source adoption, many organizations are enjoying the other benefits of open source as well: reliability, security, flexibility, standards, and much more.

As your organization turns to open source, Novell is the ideal partner to help bridge the gap between the open source community and enterprise deployment.

Novell is helping create the next generation of open source.

Novell is Part of the Open Source Community

Without standards, organizations can't realize the full benefit of open source. Novell is part of the community that's working hard to create, implement, and promote open standards.

Participation, innovation, and standardization will continue to be our primary goals. Novell continues to increase its participation in the open source community.

Contributions and Affiliations

Novell is encouraging the development of Linux Drivers, and making it easier than ever to package software for Linux with the openSUSE Build Service for openSUSE®, SUSE® Linux Enterprise, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, and many others. Novell is part of many open source projects—learn more.

The openSUSE Project is opening minds around the world

Sponsored by Novell, the openSUSE project is a world-wide open source community that promotes the use of Linux everywhere by providing a best-of-class Linux-based operating system. Through openSUSE, users around the world have free and easy access to Linux.

At opensuse.org, you can join an open source community of users and developers, all working towards the same goal—to create and distribute the world's most usable Linux distribution.

openSUSE—Building Community

The openSUSE Project has millions of users, and thousands of contributors who test openSUSE and provide feedback.

The openSUSE Build Service has over 11,000 registered users, and more than 60,000 packages hosted on the service.

openSUSE—The Foundation for SUSE Linux Enterprise

openSUSE users can pick from more than 6,000 open source applications. For its enterprise customers, Novell picks about 2,000 for additional testing and inclusion in SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Promoting the use of Linux everywhere.

Everything You Need to Get Started

openSUSE is available for free download, or in a convenient packaged retail edition. It provides everything you need to get started with Linux. openSUSE provides a cutting-edge user interface, Microsoft Office file compatibility through the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, enhanced multimedia support and an extensive library of the latest open source applications for desktops, servers and application developers.

Learn More

Whether you're an experienced Linux developer or an end user just getting started with Linux, there are many ways for you to participate in the openSUSE project. Find out more at www.opensuse.org.

Wondering who's behind openSUSE? Read all about the people of openSUSE.

Write once, run anywhere!

SUSE Linux Enterprise is the only enterprise Linux distribution to include Mono®, an open source implementation of the .NET framework. Mono allows corporate IT and ISV developers to develop new applications, or to port their existing .NET applications to Linux, without investing major resources to rewrite code.

.NET on Linux

Microsoft .NET connects systems, information and devices through Web services so people can collaborate and communicate more effectively. However, the .NET framework only supports Windows platforms.

Run your applications on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X!

Avoid Costly Licensing and Maintenance Costs

In an effort to reduce license and maintenance costs, as well as increase security and reliability, more IT organizations are turning to Linux and other UNIX platforms to run their mission-critical enterprise applications.

Mono offers organizations another option for running .NET applications. Developers now have the flexibility to target multiple platforms with one code base.

An open source development platform based on the .NET framework, Mono allows corporate IT and ISV developers to port their existing .NET applications to Linux without the need to invest major resources in rewriting their code.

Moonlight

Microsoft's Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plugin for delivering the next generation of media experiences and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

The Moonlight team has delivered Moonlight 1.0, just in time for more than 20,000 people to watch President Obama's Inauguration on January 20th.

Involved in more projects, pushing more Linux desktops.

Committed to helping Linux succeed on the desktop, Novell is a major contributor to KDE, GNOME, Banshee, F-Spot, Mono, OpenOffice.org, Evolution, and many other projects that help Linux compete on the desktop. Through its community involvement, Novell is ensuring that the Linux desktop is ready to meet your needs.

Novell employs many contributors to open source desktop efforts, and has provided a clear and consistent vision for the Linux desktop that enterprises and the open source community alike can depend on.

Actively Supporting GNOME

Novell contributes to GNOME through sponsorship of the GNOME Foundation and its maintenance of Evolution and the GNOME control center, contributions to NetworkManager, and work on Mono applications like Banshee, Tomboy, F-Spot, and many others.

Making Linux Desktops Work for Everybody

Leading Contributor to KDE

SUSE Linux Enterprise has a long and rich tradition of providing the best distribution of KDE available. Novell is a patron of the KDE project and employs several developers who are dedicated to developing and improving KDE. Novell has contributed several key features to KDE 4, and ships KDE 4.1 as a desktop option for openSUSE 11.1, and will include the latest KDE in openSUSE 11.2.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Novell is committed to supporting the Linux desktop and user choice. By supporting and packaging KDE, GNOME and other desktop environments, contributing to usability efforts, and supporting internationalization, Novell is making the Linux desktop easier to use for everyone.

Become part of the open source community @ Novell.

The best part of open source is that anyone can participate. Whether you're a developer, a power user, or new to computing in general, there are ways to get involved with the open source community through Novell.

openSUSE.org—A Cast of Thousands

The openSUSE project has millions of users, and thousands of contributors, and there's always room for more. As openSUSE grows, we want to make it possible for anyone to contribute to and influence the distribution in order to provide the best Linux possible.

Anyone Can Contribute

Not a developer? No problem. The openSUSE community needs contributors to provide testing and feedback, documentation, artwork, marketing support, and community members to attend trade shows and discuss openSUSE with users who are interested in learning more about the project. Just by using openSUSE you're contributing to the project by enjoying and testing the distribution.

No matter what your skill set, we want you!

Open source needs you!

openSUSE Build Service

Already involved with an open source project? We can help you provide packages for openSUSE and other distributions—including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux—via the openSUSE Build Service. Help the community by providing a wide variety of packages for your project!

Mono

Want to see .Net applications running flawlessly on Linux? Join the Mono effort, an open source implementation of the .Net framework and C# and common language runtime. With Mono, developers can target Windows and Linux at the same time.

The Mono team is looking for developers to write applications in Mono, and for developers and contributors to assist with the Mono Project. Whether you want to develop with Mono, or develop for Mono, we want to hear from you!