Novell is planning to introduce improvements to its
Zenworks system management tool to simplify the management of
desktop PCs running Ximian software.
The company is attempting to address the problem users face in
managing a desktop and server environment comprising Windows,
Linux, mainframes and various flavours of Unix.
Steve Gaines, technical director at Novell, said that by using
Ximian "Red Carpet" technology, any flavour of Windows, Linux and
Unix could be managed.
Red Carpet offers software distribution technology to help roll out
patches across Linux desktop infrastructures. Gaines said, "One of
the big problems with Linux is that it comprises 3,000 or so
interdependent packages."
This means that when the IT director needs to issue a patch, all
the software components that will be affected must be checked. "Red
Carpet ensures the dependencies are resolved automatically," Gaines
said.
The technology is expected to be introduced in the next version of
Zenworks later this year.