Novell Sees Strong Momentum in Linux Workgroup Solutions

BARCELONA, Spain, (BrainShare(R) 2005), Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) today highlighted strong momentum for its latest workgroup offering and outlined plans for the future of Linux-based workgroup computing. Novell(R) Open Enterprise Server, which experienced the most active beta program in Novell's history, has shipped more than 5 million licenses to approximately 4,000 new and existing customers since its launch in March. In the future, Open Enterprise Server is planned to deliver enhanced workgroup collaboration capabilities and support for NetWare(R) applications using a virtual machine running on a Linux foundation. As a result, Novell customers can continue to leverage their NetWare investments while gaining new options with Linux to run their advanced services and applications, with little or no disruption to their current IT environments.

"Novell's Open Enterprise Server allows Novell's customers to take advantage of new Linux-based technology while also being able to take advantage of time-proven NetWare services," said Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's vice president of system software research. "Novell is making good use of several forms of virtualization technology to provide NetWare services on Linux. Novell is offering its customers the freedom to choose the features they need while still giving them the efficiency of managing a single platform. This should reduce customer operational and administrative costs."

Novell Open Enterprise Server is a secure and reliable workgroup platform and suite of services designed to support information workers throughout an organization. It combines NetWare and SUSE(TM) Linux Enterprise Server to deliver proven file, print, directory, management, collaboration and application services. With Open Enterprise Server, Novell is providing tools for customers to migrate to Linux as their business strategy calls for compatible applications and hardware. More than 65 percent of Open Enterprise Server customers who purchased in the first month of availability have indicated they would deploy the product in whole or in part on the Linux platform. Open Enterprise Server Innovations

Businesses that rely on the productivity of information workers are looking to leverage the work processes and the management of these work processes for improvements. In response, along with advanced distributed management capabilities and the ability to run Open Enterprise Server on 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, future enhancements of Open Enterprise Server are planned to include advanced workgroup collaboration, with a complete stack of business productivity and communication services including teaming, conferencing, content management and workflow capabilities, Kerberos* authentication to reduce administration costs, and NetWare and Windows* migration tools and methodologies to enable simplified migrations for all NetWare and Windows workgroup services.

Kent Police in the United Kingdom began its move to Linux just last year, and has now dropped Red Hat* in favor of Novell's Linux solutions. "Linux is the platform for the future, and through Novell Open Enterprise Server, it's ready for enterprise-level workloads today," said Mark Williams, specialist services manager for Kent Police. "It has been surprisingly easy to move our servers to Linux solutions, as many of our vendors have Novell's SUSE Linux as part of their product plans. Speed, ease of use and reliability have been key factors for us. Linux lets us do more than we could with NetWare alone, and Open Enterprise Server combines the best of those two platforms."

Novell Open Enterprise Server continues to be recognized in the industry, recently taking the overall winner slot in the VARBusiness 2005 Annual Report Card's Server Operating Systems category, beating Microsoft* Windows Server 2003 as Novell swept the product, support and partnership sub-categories. Open Enterprise Server scored particularly well over Windows in the areas of product quality and quality of technical support. Free Linux Training for Customers

Novell is also helping customers gain the needed expertise to make a smooth transition to Linux, introducing a free Web-based training course that will help them transfer NetWare expertise to Linux. The course, "Bridging NetWare Skills to Novell Open Enterprise Server Linux," addresses the most common administration tasks such as running executables and batch files and administering user accounts, and it builds on participants' NetWare skills to perform those tasks on the Open Enterprise Server Linux platform. More information on this free course can be found at http://www.novell.com/netwaretolinux .

"Novell is the only company to deliver a full suite of workgroup services on Linux," said David Patrick, vice president and general manager of Linux, Open Source Platforms and Services for Novell. "We continue to give customers what they are asking for: the power of Linux and the flexibility to run market-leading workgroup services on their hardware of choice with the applications they demand."

More information about Open Enterprise Server can be found at http://www.novell.com . About Novell

Novell, Inc. delivers software for the open enterprise. 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, Novell's 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world help 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 NetWare are registered trademarks, SUSE is a trademark, and BrainShare is a registered service mark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Kerberos is a trademark of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Windows and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.