Novell News

There’s good news for OpenOffice from the Apple universe. According to this article in Macworld online, OpenOffice will be available in a native version for Mac OS X next month. While there has been a workaround that allows Mac users to use OpenOffice, this will certainly make it easier. Coming on the heels of Novell’s shipping OpenOffice.org 2.0 in our new SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, this is another important step forward in industry adoption of OpenOffice.

Novell will be launching its next generation Web access management solution later this year. Since we couldn’t wait to share the news, we’ve just launched the Novell Access Manager pre- release program here.Novell Access Manager is a key component of Novell’s solutions for identity and security management, providing seamless single sign-on across technical and organizational boundaries. Novell Access Manager combines advanced capabilities such as multi-factor authentication, data encryption, clientless Web single sign- on and SSL VPN for seamless secure access to any application from any location. It is designed to simplify and safeguard online asset sharing, giving customers a new way to control access to Web-based and traditional business applications. Trusted users will have secure authentication and access to portals, Web- based content and enterprise applications.So what can you expect from the latest offering from Novell?Among other things, Novell Access Manager provides comprehensive, secure Web access that simplifies access without compromising security. It also includes support for the full Liberty Alliance Web Service Framework and SAML 2.0, leveraging industry standards to securely share identity information across business boundaries. It also enables federated provisioning, making it easier for customers to establish trusted relationships with an organization and its partners.There’s a lot more coming, but you need to wait until later this fall for the full story.In the meantime, more detailed technical information about the product is available in this white paper.

There are a couple of stories out today (one here, the other here) in Red Herring talking about Linux in Asia, with particular focus on China and India. They highlight that, while Linux has yet to take off in Asia to the extent it has in Europe and North America, the potential for future growth is strong. Novell is identified as an important player in both India and China, the two markets Red Herring pegs as the most likely to surge.On a related note, Novell India yesterday announced that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, as well as key desktop applications like OpenOffice, Firefox, Beagle, Banshee, Evolution and YaST, have been localized in five major Indian languages – Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Gujarati and Marathi. This will make it easier for Indian entities, particularly in the government and education sector, to adopt SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.

Massachusetts CIO Louis Gutierrez put out a statement yesterday on the Commonwealth’s progress in OpenDocument Format (ODF) implementation. It specifically addressed concerns about access for the disabled. Gutierrez states that there are a sufficient number of projects in the works that will allow access to ODF, including “translators” from Microsoft Office, and that he’s confident Massachusetts is still on target to have a series of “early adopter” agencies standardized on ODF by Jan. 1, 2007. ODF is the default file format in OpenOffice.org 2.0, which ships with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, so we’re encouraged to see Massachusetts continue its strategy to move toward an open platform for its documents.

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)‑12 requires a common identity standard for all federal employees and contractors as a means to provide even tighter security controls. As a result, federal agencies are going to need highly scalable identity management systems integrated with smart cards and other security technologies. A leader in identity management, Novell has taken its expertise to the HSPD‑12 Convergence Team sponsored by Alternative Technology. Working together, Alternative Technology, AEP Networks, Novell and Precise Biometrics are looking for ways to help address the complex challenges presented by the President’s security mandate. For more information about the Convergence Team, check out today’s press release.

Jeff Jaffe has posted an interesting take on the history of innovation, including a persuasive argument on why open source is the next stage in innovation for the tech industry. Over the last few decades, innovation has moved from university-led to industrial research centers to venture backed initiatives. But the economics and the technology have now positioned open source as the best method for innovation moving forward. Jeff backs this up with examples, and will be detailing in a future post how Bandit, a recently launched open source project around identity, is a proof point for the the new model. Interesting reading….

Missed this one last week, but there’s a good interview here (MP3 file) on Microsoft’s open source lab site with Miguel de Icaza, Novell’s VP of engineering who leads the Mono project. Mono is an open source implementation of .NET, which allows applications written for .NET environments to run on Linux. It’s a fairly technical discussion about how the project got started and where it’s headed. Interesting insight into how a project like Mono works.

John Dragoon, Novell’s CMO, has put up a good post on his take on LinuxWorld. Check that our here.

It’s been a busy week at LinuxWorld, with a lot of news coming out from Novell that we hope you’ve seen. It’s all on our virtual press room page here. This includes a new format press release that includes multimedia components to help us show some of the creative content from the new marketing campaign we’re launching around the theme, “Your Linux is Ready.” The Novell booth has been packed with people driving the new SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. Good stuff….In conjunction with the show, the Institute for Partner Education and Development (part of CMP media), published an interesting study on Linux in the channel. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic attempt to quantify what Linux can do for solution providers’ business. The study, which involved polling some 400 solution providers, provides some good data about what solution providers are doing now on Linux, what their plans are, and how much Linux is helping their bottom line. There’s some good information in here that points toward growth in Linux in the channel.

Novell will have a big presence at LinuxWorld San Francisco, which starts tomorrow and runs through Thursday. We’ll have a large booth, with great opportunities to get hands on experience with SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, both desktop and server. We’ll also have key partners in the Novell booth showing their solutions on SUSE LInux Enterprise 10, including SAP, IBM, Lenovo, HP, Concurrent, Zmanda, Spikesource, Jaspersoft, Alfresco and many more. We’re running a “Best of BrainShare” session and sponsoring the CIO Summit, where, among others, Nationwide, a Linux customer of Novell, will be presenting. We’ve also got Novell folks delivering a number of sessions, from desktop to virtualization to security and management. On the press front, we’ll host a press conference tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 10:15 am Pacific in the LinuxWorld press conference room, room 110 in Hall D. If you’re at the show, we hope you can attend. If you’re not at the show, we’ll be streaming that live on our LinuxWorld virtual press room page, which will go up tomorrow. We’ll be talking about momentum around SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, some customer wins, new partners, and more. It’s going to be a great week. See you at the show!