At Novell's Linux Big Picture Event on Thursday in London, the company told customers more about Open Enterprise Server (OES), an upcoming product that will combine its NetWare operating system with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. OES will allow customers to run NetWare services on both NetWare and SuSE Linux servers, and manage them using the same tools.
Kris Smith, a computing officer at Kingston University, said there is demand for Linux at his university, but until now it has been hard to fulfil.
"We've got a lot of NetWare servers, but people are always asking for Linux machines," said Smith. "It has never been feasible until now as we can't run it easily. OES will mean we have a way of delivering and managing Linux systems."
Keith Durston of consultancy firm AEA Technology said his firm will probably migrate from NetWare to Linux across the board. "Its very likely we'll be adopting OES very quickly," said Durston. He said one of the main advantages of OES is that technical staff who are accustomed to the NetWare technology do not need to learn new skills to manage Linux.
But, not all NetWare customers are happy with Novell's Linux strategy. Some customers said they were concerned that Novell may withdraw support for Netware and GroupWise products.
ZDNet UK's Ingrid Marson reported from London. For more coverage from ZDNet UK, click here.
