Novell to acquire SuSE

[mdwatts]

Just received a email from Novell. Here's part of it.


Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Enterprise Linux Technology Company SUSE LINUX

Novell's newest Linux acquisition demonstrates its continuing commitment to the open source model and developer community. Also, IBM has demonstrated its recognition of Novell's leadership in Linux by making an equity investment in Novell and will negotiate extensions to a commercial agreement with Novell/SUSE LINUX to support the IBM eServer line.

Novell today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire SUSE LINUX, one of the world's leading enterprise Linux companies, expanding Novell's ability to provide enterprise-class services and support on the Linux platform. With the open source expertise of SUSE LINUX and Novell's world-class networking and identity solutions and support, training and consulting services, Novell will be able to deliver Linux and all its components -- from the server to the desktop -- and give organizations a secure, reliable and mature Linux foundation. Novell will pay $210 million in cash to complete the acquisition. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the winding up of shareholder agreements. Novell expects the transaction to close by the end of its first fiscal quarter (January 2004).

[jmartinez]

I am a big suse fan...does this article mean SuSE will still operate independantly or will Novell eat them like the borg.... And my company is a SuSE Linux Advanced Partner what happens now?

[hard candy]

And my company is a SuSE Linux Advanced Partner what happens now?

Can you say I-P-X ??!! :D

So now we get Yastware? Or Groupsuse?

[JsPr]

If they follow in Compaq footsteps it ought to be Truse and that's not funny come to think of it... :rolleyes:

[gkedrovs]

I know we all probably know this... but, it's still really interesting... Novell aquired Ximian in August. Now, it has SuSE and Ximian. "Server to desktop" Linux solution. It's clear as clear can be that Novell sees the future, and it's painted like a Penguin.

In addition to this, IBM (supposedly) wants to invest 50 million gringo greenbacks in Novell stock.

It doesn't seem to me that these big hitters are going to devour SuSE or Ximian. It seems like they see a big money-maker (i.e. a good product and good product demand, now and in the future). I'd look for some good things to happen with Novell in the future. But, that's my great, humble, uniformed, ignorant-of-macroeconomics opinion. :-)

-Greg

[JsPr]

gkedrovs: Just loved your BSOD link. Made my day! LOL

[TallGuy]

http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/11/pr03069.html?sourceid=suse_nzone_press
http://www.suse.com/us/company/press/press_releases/archive03/novell_suse.html
Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Enterprise Linux Technology Company SUSE LINUX

Notice how both sites run the same press release

[bigmac99]

http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/11/pr03069.html

now they on Suse as well as Ximian.....wow.

-Charles

< note from moderator .... merged into this thread >

[gkedrovs]

SourceForge has a nice collection of analysis on the acquisition:

http://www.newsforge.com/business/03/11/04/1854241.shtml

Meanwhile ZD Net (Australia) says " For Novell, Linux is not just a popular
operating system--it's a lifeline for the company and its shrinking base of
NetWare customers."

http://www.zdnet.com.au/itmanager/technology/story/0,2000029587,20280559,00.htm

Thanks to a guy on the kclug for the links.

-gk

[JsPr]

Well, I wish Novell luck! Let's hope that IBM, Novell and SuSe can give MS some real competition even on the desktop.
Linux is currently doing fine on the server side.

[retoon]

I attended a Novell/IBM Linux solutions seminar in Boston about two weeks ago. It was really interesting. Novell has been porting their services to the linux platform for a little while now. I love it. I've always loved Novell. Active Directory has nothing at all on e-Directory(NDS). I have a feeling they're gonna integrate Netware and the linux kernel. They've been on that damn pc-dos for such a long time. RSA is pretty heavy on pushing linux too now a days. Their Keon Certificate Authority and Registration Authority are already ported to linux. As a matter of fact, they use Apache as the core of their web interface. Have any of you tried Ximian Desktop? Thats the real reason they bought Ximian. Ximian desktop is very windowsish, actually, it looks a little more like MAC OS9. They took all the inconsistancies between KDE and Gnome, and solidified it. Its definately gonna be a good idea for the end user, especially now that Novell is working with Ximian and Suse to develop their Novell Client for the linux platform. That would be nice. You people up there, IPX/SPX is still used granted, but Novell has pretty much given up on it in favor of TCP/IP. All their services are TCP/IP. NDS is really the only acception to the rule, where both are supported. IBM, Novell, Ximian, Suse. Its like a round up of superheros. Nothing bad can come of this. Novell and IBM just wanna make sure they ride the wave, ofcourse with IBM's bad luck, something might go wrong...lol.

[kr0m3]

the only bummer that i see...

(crap, i smell the flames already... ;) )

...is that since (i feel) Novell will be nothing but good for lnx in general and gnome in particular, that means that two major distros obviously prefer gnome to kde (apologies to all the little gnomes out there).

i suppose that either suse or redhat could lose pre-imminence within a couple of years...we'll have to wait and see about fedora and if novell is serious

~k

[hard candy]

KDE requires a license from Trolltech for closed/proprietary development.
I imagine the thinking at Suse/Redhat was to avoid a potential problems and go with Gnome. Some believed KDE was headed down a dead end road by using QT, so they formed the Gnome project to use GTK. Some believe KDE is better BECAUSE of QT and the license issue isn't that important.
I personally like KDE over Gnome- not sure why, sort of a "I prefer dark chocalate and he prefers milk chocolate" type preference. Novell may run into the Trolltech license if they were to develop proprietary software to run with KDE. So I imagine Groupwise will not have a "KDE platinum" interface. :D
KDE License issue (http://www.kde.org/whatiskde/qt.php)