suse

Is Russia seeking control of young minds through Linux?

In an attempt to reduce its dependence on foreign software, Russia is planning to install its own version of Linux on school children's desktops across the country, according to CNews. Fantastic, right? Well, all that glitters is not gold.

Leonid Reiman, RF acting Minister of Communication states Russian OS and application program package development is of vital importance,...[with] [t]he main aim of the given work [being] to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government....… Read more

Open-sourcing my error on XenSource

The unfortunate thing about writing all your thoughts down in a blog is that it makes it very clear just how wrong I can be sometimes. My "code" is online, for everyone to see, analyze, and critique.

And critique you do. :-)

A case in point is my fulminations earlier Thursday on XenSource and its alleged abandonment of the Xen project. John Vigeant, a friend from my Novell days and XenSource's director of Business Development, kindly swatted me in an e-mail for errors in my post.

Witness my sackcloth and ashes (with John's permission--he must have some perverse pleasure in seeing me don this hairshirt :-):… Read more

Lenovo to preload Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop...due to customer demand

That Lenovo is preloading SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop doesn't do much for me. I'm not a big fan of the Linux desktop. But the driving factor behind the announcement...? That interests me a great deal.

As Ars Technica reports,

"We have seen more customers utilizing and requesting open source notebook solutions in education, government, and the enterprise since our ThinkPad T60p Linux announcement, and today's announcement expands upon our efforts by offering customers more Linux options," said Lenovo VP Sam Dusi in a statement.… Read more

Ten commandments for Ubuntu

I was fortunate to keynote this year's Ubuntu Live conference. I rarely give the same presentation twice, as I figure people are paying to hear something new. In UL's case, I spent a long time thinking through lessons I've learned from my time with Novell/SUSE and my interactions with Red Hat, and tried to come up with ways that Ubuntu could be successful yet leverage what makes it different.

In many ways, I find myself agreeing with Stephen O'Grady's Ubuntu Live keynote. Not surprising, since I think highly of Stephen. Stephen suggests that community defines the Ubuntu experience, and should be one of its primary differentiators:

To take the pebble, then, Ubuntu needs to reframe the debate. To do that, it must turn the conversation from basic operating system shootouts to the operating experience. A conversation that, in my opinion, favors Ubuntu.… Read more

Linux Foundation does CTO switcheroo

Markus Rex is leaving Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server project for the time being to take over as chief technology officer of the Linux Foundation.

At the foundation, Rex replaces Ian Murdock, the Debian Linux founder whom Sun Microsystems hired to be chief operating system officer in March. Rex will take Murdock's role not only as CTO of the foundation, but also as chairman of the Linux Standard Base (LSB), a years-old but so still incomplete effort to make it easier for software companies to ensure compatibility with various incarnations of the open-source operating system.

"I need … Read more

Italian Communists choose Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

The headline is a bit of a joke, but the news is serious: Novell just announced Europe's largest rollout of Linux desktops with the Italian Parliament. Approximately 3,500 PCs will be migrated to Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, including those belonging to the 630 members of parliament. Not too shabby.

This makes it the second and largest parliament in Europe to choose open source. The French Parliament, with 577 seats, voted last year to have open source installed on all of its 1145 PCs. France decided on Ubuntu this February, and the migration in the Parliament should be under … Read more

Microsoft tries to sidestep GPL 3

Microsoft on Thursday began taking evasive action to avoid being pinned down by provisions in the new version 3 of the General Public License (GPL).

The company issued a statement declaring itself not a party to GPL 3. And regarding coupons it sells that entitle customers to Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server, customers won't get support from Novell or anyone else for any GPL 3 software in that package.

"At this point in time, in order to avoid any doubt or legal debate on this issue, Microsoft has decided that the Novell support certificates that we distribute … Read more

Open source @ Novell: Justin Steinman speaks

In this second installment of the "Open Source @" series, we're taking a look at the role of open source within one of the industry's largest open-source companies, Novell. Of course Novell is doing things with open source," some will say. However, I chose to include Novell because I wanted to give the company a chance to tell its side of the story, given all the flak (much of it from me) it has taken on its patent deal with Microsoft.

I've given Novell a forum to discuss the patent deal before but, frankly, I wanted to give the company a chance to talk about all the other open-source-related things it's doing. Even I get tired of hitting the same note all day long, every day, for the past year.

And so I asked Justin Steinman, director of product marketing, Linux & Open Platform Solutions at Novell, to comment on the state of open source at the company. What is Novell doing for which it gets little credit?

Justin responded (and sent his response in Open Document format, which I think says a lot about Novell's desktop efforts) with a long (very long!), thoughtful post. It's well worth a read.

He writes:… Read more

Novell delivers "skinny" Linux workstations to Staybridge Suites

Just when you thought the thin client computing model was dead, you find out it was only sleeping. And, in the case of Staybridge Suites, you discover that when it wakes up in the morning it goes online with a Novell-powered Linux thin client in its room. (Note: Staybridge is the extended-stay brand of the InterContinental Hotels Group.)

This is one of the most interesting Linux customer wins I've seen in some time, both because of what it could portend for the hotel industry (a "PC" in every room so that you really can travel solely with your Treo/Blackberry/iPhone), and for what it means for Novell on the desktop: the company continues to treat it seriously and make solid wins.

The hotel and Mainline evaluated Microsoft Windows desktops, but found that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop was a fraction of the cost, would provide a feature-rich desktop experience for guests, was a solid platform for supporting open-standards applications such as OpenOffice and Mozilla Firefox, and was an excellent fit for the hotel's thin client strategy.… Read more

CareGroup CIO votes for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

It's just one man's opinion, but I always like to hear what the end customer thinks about technology. While I'm not a big believer in the Linux desktop (at least, as a direct competitor to OS X and Windows in the US/EMEA enterprise market), I'm glad to see SUSE Linux Desktop pass the test with the CIO of CareGroup:

...Halamka found in SUSE a version of the Linux operating system that didn?t crash or lock up once during the month he used it; that booted quickly (within 30 seconds); that was easy enough to … Read more