Linux In Novell’s East Region

Novell’s site about the difference between SLED 10 and Microsoft’s Vista, and why we think Vista should be given the skip and SLED 10 honestly rocks.

A short article on how to convert data from MS Access databases over to OOo’s Base application

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, is the latest customer to go public with their choice to select SUSE Linux over Red Hat as a result of the Microsoft-Novell agreement signed in late 2006.

“We have wanted information technology vendors to deliver true interoperability and IP assurance between multiple platforms for some time now, and we are pleased that Microsoft and Novell are committed to fulfilling that need,” said Nancy Stewart, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Wal-Mart. “Wal-Mart is known around the world for its innovative use of technology. Selecting Microsoft and Novell is another step in that strategy. The net result is a win for us and, more importantly, for our customers.”

Official Press Release

Related CNet article

I’ve been asked by several people, so I thought it would be helpful to post links to the relevant documentation in the blog for everyone. Note: the policies for SLES and SLED are different.

• for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server – on a given physical server, a SLES subscription is required for the first instance (host or guest), and subsequent instances are at no charge.  This is an INCREDIBLE VALUE, by the way – esp when you consider that Xen virtualization is built into SLES, so you may not need to “purchase” additional VM technology.

“One subscription to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server covers all virtual images on the same physical server independent of the virtualization technology a customer is using. While each physical server requires the purchase of a subscription to be activated and receive ongoing updates and patches, an unlimited number of virtual server images can be created in Xen or other network virtualization technologies on each activated physical server. No additional subscriptions are required for virtual images.”

from… http://www.novell.com/products/server/virtualization.html

• for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop – every instance of SLED requires a unique subscription.  The low cost of SLED and hardware savings alone makes it an exceptional value over a typical Windows choice – esp Vista

The Software is a collective work of Novell. You must acquire a license for each installation of the Software and for each additional copy (or partial copy) of the Software stored or loaded in memory or virtual memory beyond the initial copy necessary for execution of the Software installed on the hardware.

from… the SLED 10 EULA

Eweek’s very interesting contrast and comparison between the latest Ubuntu and OpenSUSE offerings, concluding that either is a fit replacement for Windows.  You can guess which one we think you ought to consider…

Great article, the Linux Foundation is a positive step in the fight to gain Linux market share from Windows.

From the article: “Those same companies have decided that the time has come to consolidate their collaborative support into a new group, the Linux Foundation, which is being announced today. And the mission of the new organization is help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.”

Check out this new website and see why SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is the compelling alternative to Windows Vista.

Learn More About SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10

• Read the competitive comparison white paper
• View the product presentation
• Watch the demos
• Read more about it

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is using Linux desktop solutions from Novell?
• Can it easily be deployed in my Windows environment
• Which users are best served by SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop?
• How is it licensed?

Interesting beginner desktop article briefs newbies about how to choose between the two.

Interested in virtualization, or at least seeing what all the buzz is about?  Does having virtualization and optimized management in the data center seem to be right around the corner?  Attend these two web seminars and find out how Novell and SUSE Linux can help you:

• Reduce Complexity
• Reduce Costs
• Reduce Risks

XEN Virtualization
Date: February 6, 2007
Time: 11am Eastern

Management Automation
Date: February 7, 2007
Time: 11am Eastern

Registration: www.Novell.com/linuxseminars

There’s a great 5 page whitepaper that was recently published to our website.  It has some of the basic technical detail you might be hungering for in this arena – although there is still much more to discuss.  My personal favorite part (paraphrased) is…

Novell and MS are working together to support:
– Full Virtualization of Windows 2000/2003/Vista on SLES 10 (Xen)
– Para Virtualization of Longhorn Server on SLES 10 (Xen)

Download the whitepaper and read it here:
http://www.novell.com/allsystemsgo

Great article about Traceroute, a key troubleshooting tool for anyone who networks anything.

Must be the week for Linus Torvalds to chat with the media, he weighs in on Vista and while not exactly saying it’s no good, he does not think it’s all that new or all that revolutionary.

Actually I can’t even do pivot tables in Excel… well, I never really took the time to learn. But I find myself needing to use them now, and I’m on OpenOffice.org Calc instead of Excel. Fortunately I found this nice little tutorial on how to get started with Data Pilot in Open Office.org Calc (ie, Pivot Tables).

There are also some great tutorials on the other OpenOffice.org apps in case you need those… all at www.learnopenoffice.org

From the article:  “The European Commission has issued a ringing endorsement of open source software, producing a confidence-boost for businesses considering the deployment of Linux and other free software.

In a lengthy report into business deployments of open source software, published in full late last week, the EC said in “almost all cases” cost savings would be made by switching from proprietary to open source software.”

Yep, it made # 4, along with a number of other apps like ICQ, Real Player, the critical Acrobat Reader and who can forget Winamp?

Short video of Linus Torvalds (Creator of the Linux Kernel) about why there’s really not a 2.7 Kernel just yet and how stable and long-lived the 2.6 Kernel has been.

Linux.com’s article shows you how to get wget to cater to your needs, a must read.

Someone put up a “Compare Distro’s” page that let’s you pick various versions of Linux distributions and compare them side by side.  I’ve linked to the Ubuntu <-> SUSE comparison, some of the comments are pretty funny…

Interesting article about how to increase your privacy at work in this day and age of corporate monitoring and compliance.

Coming from our friends at ZDNet down under… Check out the article.  Apparently, even on the other side of the globe some are recognizing that the retraining and expense involved in making the jump to Vista, offers an excellent (and lower cost) opportunity to see what a Linux desktop (like SLED) can do for you…