Analysts have welcomed Novell's plans to acquire SuSE
for £125m, saying that the pact will benefit open-source
customers unhappy with Red Hat's latest licensing policy, and help
Novell square up to Microsoft in the operating system
arena.
Earlier this year, Novell purchased Silverstream and Ximian with
the intention of moving all the acquired expertise onto the Linux
platform. The missing piece, however, was that Novell, previously
an operating systems company, did not have an operating system to
sell with Linux, rather they just had layers of software and
services.
"It's very good for Novell because they can centre their efforts
on a lively growing platform instead of focusing on a platform that
is excellent but in decline," said Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst with
IDC.
"From SuSE's position, this gives them Novell's channel,
partnerships and Novell's funding to help them to become a
worldwide player."
The third party to consider here is Red Hat, which announced on
Monday that it is discontinuing support of an earlier free Linux
version in the hope of getting users to migrate to its
enterprise-class software.
Red Hat also has been doing its best to enforce a licence per
machine and a service contract per machine business model, which
has not been broadly accepted by the open-source community.
Novell and SuSE now have a chance to go to those users who are
feeling disaffected because of Red Hat's moves and offer a Linux
stack of software without the users having to encumber themselves
with Red Hat's licensing.
"The Linux OS market now has a more legitimate Pepsi to Red
Hat's Coke, Kusnetzky said. "Now the combination has the strength
and experience and history and installed presence in a significant
number of the major companies, and they have an opportunity to go
after Red Hat's installed base, which is not happy with Red Hat's
moves towards the enterprise licensing model."
John Enck, a server strategies analyst at Gartner, said that the
move also helps Novell stack up against Microsoft, particularly
after its purchase of Ximian, a provider of Linux server and
desktop software.
"Microsoft's major concern these days is Linux and so the
combined Novell-SuSE-Ximian really does create a more competitive
stack than Novell has. Novell can go head-to-head at the OS level
and say 'OK you have Exchange, we have Groupwise, you got file and
print and so do we,'" Enck said.
Novell also announced that IBM is to make a $50m investment in
Novell convertible preferred stock, and that both companies are
negotiating extensions to existing commercial agreements between
IBM and SuSE for the continued support of SuSE Linux on IBM's
eServer products and middleware products.
Last week, SuSE chief executive officer Richard Seibt refused to
confirm talk of a possible takeover by Novell, saying only that
"there are lots of rumours out there, and there will be many more.
We're doing well, and that attracts attention."
Ed Scannell and John Blau write for InfoWorld
Red hat drops free Linux OS in favour of Enterprise
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Novell prepares to take on Red Hat >>
Novell: Why we picked SuSE >>