Novell Only Linux Distributor Among Top Retail Technology Suppliers

WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) has debuted as the sole Linux distributor in a major ranking of technology suppliers for the retail sector. RIS News, a leading publication focused on retail technology, has included Novell for the first time in its newly released annual Software Leaderboard. Novell scored particularly well on the quality of support and service, ease of installation and administration and maintenance. As a result, retailers can look to Novell with confidence to leverage open source in retail environments.

"Retailers live and die on system uptime, ease of use and ease of administration," said Michael Allsop, director of retail industry marketing for Novell. "Linux provides an ideal platform for retail point of service and server environments because of its performance and dependability. Novell's inclusion in the RIS News Leaderboard 2005 reflects growing demand in the retail sector for the mission-critical Linux that Novell supplies."

The RIS News Software Leaderboard is based on votes from senior retail executives with significant IT responsibilities. Vendors are evaluated on retail revenue, technology performance and value, customer satisfaction, quality of support and service, administration and maintenance, and ease of upgrading, installation and integration. In only its first appearance on the Leaderboard, Novell ranked second in three categories -- quality of support, quality of service and ease of installation -- and also garnered high marks for administration and maintenance.

Novell's retail customers include Circuit City, Pep Boys, Burlington Coat Factory, Overstock.com, Boscov's and Ritz Camera. In addition to delivering its Linux Point of Service offering, Novell partners with a series of global retail application vendors to deliver comprehensive solutions to retailers. IBM, the largest retail point-of-service hardware vendor, has selected Novell's Linux Point of Service as the foundation for its retail Linux platform, IBM Retail Environment for SUSE Linux (IRES). More information on Novell's retail solutions is available at http://www.novell.com/industries/retail . About Novell

Novell, Inc. delivers Software for the Open Enterprise(TM). With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, more than 5,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world, Novell helps customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com . NOTE: Novell and SUSE are registered trademarks and Software for the Open Enterprise is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.