Novell News

Students looking to leverage the power of Linux got a new option today when Lenovo announced its “e” IdeaPad S10e netbook for education. Designed to provide one-to-one computing for grade k-12 as well as higher education students, this new education netbook is available with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell, giving customers an affordable desktop computing solution without sacrificing productivity or restricting flexibility.

To learn more about SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell go here. To read about how SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is helping meets the educational needs of students, teachers and administrators at schools, such as San Diego Unified School District and the University of New Mexico, visit our success site here. And, if you’re at Educause this week in Orlando, stop by the Novell booth #1117 to see the new netbook running SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

- from Kim Lorusso, Global Alliances Marketing Manager at Novell

This week, IBM launched its next-generation mainframe for midsize customers, the IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC). Novell is offering SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z at reduced subscription pricing, through December 2009, for new integrated facilities for Linux (IFL’s) on the System z10 Business Class machines. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z + IBM System z10 Business Class is a winning combination for Novell’s customers and business partners. The combined technologies leverage all the capabilities of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z on the z10 BC at a lower price point. In addition to reduced subscription pricing, registered customers also qualify to receive one Free SUSE Self Study Kit. To learn more about this promotion, go here.

With stock markets “yo-yoing” and credit tightening, companies are looking for ways to cut costs yet stay competitive. In these volatile times, for SMBs, educational institutions and enterprises, the desktop is one area of enterprise IT that is ripe for savings. Following the release of OpenOffice.org 3.0, Novell is pleased to announce the availability of its OpenOffice.org Novell Edition for Windows.

The Novell Edition offers all the new and improved features included with this open source office productivity suite, and backs customers with its award-winning support organization to help them stay competitive and protect their bottom line. In addition to the word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, database and drawing enhancements, the Novell Edition gives customers strong interoperability with Microsoft Office and rich file import capabilities, while continuing to lead in key areas such as VBA macro support and Calc enhancements.

To learn how to remain productive and get the most out of your desktop investment today, check out the OpenOffice.org Novell Edition for Windows here.

- From Matt Richards, Senior Manager for SUSE Studio

Recently, we unveiled a sneak preview of the alpha release of SUSE Studio at VMworld. SUSE Studio is the innovative new online tool from Novell that enables ISVs and the community to rapidly build, configure and test software appliances. At VMworld, we built three fully functional SUSE Studio kiosks and allowed users to build, test and download their appliances right in our booth. We also brought in four members of the development team to demonstrate the product and respond to questions. To see our video of SUSE Studio in action, go here.

The kiosks and the show were very successful, with ISVs and enterprise customers spending anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour building, configuring and testing customized appliances. Users built well over 100 software appliances with the kiosks, some in as little as two minutes. We also added features to allow users to burn DVDs and copy images to USB sticks for them to take home. The most popular appliances included Wireshark, FTP and Apache appliances, as well as KDE and Gnome bootable USB keys.

SUSE Studio is currently undergoing alpha testing, and will be released as public beta later this year. To learn more about SUSE Studio, and to sign up for the alpha, go here.

I’m very pleased to welcome Amie Johnson to the Novell PR team. Amie started work last week and will be supporting our identity and security management solutions, as well as PR for our channel.

Amie brings great experience to Novell. Before joining us she ran worldwide PR for Burton Group, a leading IT analyst firm with a large and well-respected security/identity practice. She’s also worked for PR agencies and has managed marketing programs and activities, as well as analyst relations. Amie will be based in our Provo, Utah office and I’m sure will soon be actively posting on this blog.