Novell will launch its own Linux distribution, aimed at the enterprise, before the end of the year, the company's solutions manager for the Asia-Pacific, Paul Kangro said yesterday.
Kangro demonstrated the features of the forthcoming distribution, which will be named Novell Linux Desktop, during a roadshow organised in Melbourne yesterday.
The roadshows, which have been held in several Asian countries before coming to Australia and New Zealand, are aimed at pushing Novell's desktop and server Linux offerings to the enterprise.
The Novell Linux Desktop is based on SUSE Linux which Novell acquired last year.
But the enthusiast market is still very much a part of Novell's plans and the company plans to continue issuing new versions of SUSE Linux Professional, the vice-president and general manager of SUSE Linux, Markus Rex said.
He said SUSE had gained its name and popularity because of enthusiasts and the company would not forget this section of its users.
Novell also acquired Linux desktop and server software maker maker Ximian during the last 12 months and Rex said this would help the company provide a nicely customised version of the GNOME Desktop in its forthcoming SUSE release.
He said it was true that SUSE had thus leant towards KDE but this was because it had a number of employees from this project on its staff and thus it was easy to customise this desktop environment for its distribution.
Several GNOME developers were employees of Ximian and their input would now be used to provide a customised GNOME. "We are now a global distribution after becoming part of Novell. Thus we have to do both desktops and do them both well," he said.
Kangro used a laptop on which he had loaded Microsoft applications as well, using the version of WINE sold under the name Crossover Office. He also had OpenOffice.org loaded and demonstrated how files could be easily handled using the free suite.
"Sure, there's a migration cost when one moves from that other system (Windows) to Linux," Kangro said. "But businesses should also realise that there's a cost when they don't migrate."
To illustrate his point, he mentioned a conversation he had had with an Indian government official in New Delhi during the roadshow there. "This official told me that his government's interest in Linux stemmed from the fact that they did not want to store government data in file formats which were controlled by a single company," Kangro said. "His point was: 'Why should I have to acquire software from some outside company in order to see my own data?'."
Both Kangro and Novell's Asic Pacific president Rhonda O'Donnell said the interest from enterprise IT managers was more than what they had expected. They had expected a small turnout for the roadshow in Canberra as it was held on the Monday after the federal elections but 230 people had turned up; the Melbourne event was packed.
Kangro said businesses were becoming more and more aware of IP issues and realising that adopting open standards for file and data storage were the only option which would ensure that they were not locked out of their own data.
"You have to realise that you're talking about a company (Microsoft) which often makes it impossible for files from one version of a product to be read by previous versions of the same product - file formats change from version to version," he said.
The roadshow moves to Sydney today and winds up in Auckland later this week.