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SuSE wins Linux a new security badge

Novell says SuSE Linux, the version of the open-source operating system it acquired earlier this month, has passed a higher level of security certification.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland
2 min read
NEW YORK--Novell announced on Wednesday that SuSE Linux, the version of the open-source operating system it acquired earlier this month, has passed a new level of security certification.

In August 2003, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) was certified to meet Evaluation Assurance Level 2 (EAL2) of an internationally adopted set of government security requirements called the Common Criteria. As expected, Novell said Wednesday at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo that the operating system has passed the more stringent EAL3 tests.

The certification will apply to the SLES software that runs on all of IBM's server lines--its zSeries mainframes, xSeries Intel-based servers, iSeries midrange servers, pSeries Unix servers and the eServer 325, which uses Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processors.


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Achieving Common Criteria certifications--a necessity for many government and military customers--moves Linux a step closer to the established status of competing operating systems such as Microsoft's Windows, Sun Microsystems' Solaris, Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX and IBM's AIX, all of which have the higher EAL4 certification.

Red Hat, the company that sells the most widely used version of Linux, announced in February that it was working with Oracle to achieve EAL2 certification by the end of 2003, but the company hasn't announced that approval yet.

In December, an Oracle representative said the Red Hat certification was expected by mid-January.

Red Hat and SuSE are both IBM business partners, but in New York, Big Blue has been showing warm ties with SuSE. Jim Stallings, IBM's general manager for Linux, praised SuSE at a Tuesday event for business partners of the Novell unit, on the eve of the Linux show.

"We've seen phenomenal strength in their technology leadership. They were the first company that scaled to eight ways," he said, meaning that SuSE beat out rivals with a version of Linux that could effectively run on a powerful eight-processor server. SuSE "goes to market faster than any of their competitors," he added.

Although SuSE lagged Red Hat in market share, it supported all IBM's server lines much earlier than Red Hat, which reached that point in October. IBM is slated to make a $50 million investment in Novell, now that the Provo, Utah-based company has completed its $210 million acquisition of SuSE.