eWeek: Novell Ups the Ante with Linux

"Red Hat Inc. is focusing all its attention on the enterprise and the annual subscription fee that goes with that software. Does this provide an opportunity for Novell and SuSE in the SMB [small and midsize business] space and on the desktop front?

"Messman: Yes. Novell has been at the enterprise level for a long time, and sitting on our NetWare kernel are a lot of enterprise NetWare services like file and print, collaboration, messaging, and the directory. These are all features that Red Hat says it will add to its product going forward. We have been selling them for 20 years. Now we're going to put them on SuSE Linux, which gives us a significant leg up on anyone in the marketplace. The SuSE desktop product being sold in Europe through the retail channel is also a perfect product for the U.S. market, and Red Hat is pulling out of that market. What a wonderful opportunity for us.

"Seibt: If you look at the people buying 4.5GB boxes, those technical users start off using the desktop product and then move to the enterprise server and then buy the applications that run on top of the operating system. It is very important for us to be in that market. If we are successful in the enterprise, then they will use the desktop both at work and at home..."

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Related Stories:

• Computerworld: Stone on Why Novell Picked SuSE(Nov 05, 2003)
• CRN Interview: SuSE Linux CEO Richard Seibt and General Manager Holger Dyroff(Aug 22, 2003)
• ZDNet: Novell's Stone: NetWare's Linux Future(Aug 08, 2003)