Novell Sells Out to Attachmate, Leaves the Future of Suse Linux Unclear

"The announcement that Novell has agreed to sell itself to Attachmate for $2.2 billion does absolutely nothing to remove the huge question mark hanging over the future of Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), Novell's open source Linux OS. Annoyingly for SLES customers, it actually raises as many questions as it answers.

"Novell put itself up for sale eight months ago following a takeover offer from hedge find Elliott Associates. Since then, long-suffering SLES customers have had to put up with uncertainty and doubt about the future of the server OS. Many of them must be wishing they'd made life simpler by picking Red Hat as their Linux supplier when they made their original purchasing decision. After all, no-one ever got sacked for not choosing Novell.

"What SLES customers do now know is that their server OS is going to be supplied by a company that "enables IT organizations to extend mission-critical services and assures they are managed, secure, and compliant." Which is nice, but not necessarily reassuring."

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