In a major shot across the bow of OS market leader Microsoft,
Novell announced yesterday that it will purchase Linux distribution
maker SUSE LINUX for $210 million. Novell, which already owns Linux
desktop environment maker Ximian, is now a major player in the Linux
market and the second old-school software maker, alongside IBM, to
adopt the open-source software (OSS) solution. Not coincidentally, IBM
also announced that it's making a $50 million investment in Novell,
further emphasizing how important non-Windows systems are to these
longtime Microsoft competitors.
"Responding to customer demands for open, standards-based
computing, Novell has been dedicated to a cross-platform vision for 4
years now, and Linux is an increasingly important part of that
strategy," Jack Messman, Novell's chairman and CEO, said. "The
acquisition of SUSE Linux will complete Novell's ability to offer
enterprise-class Linux solutions to our customers from the desktop to
the server. No other enterprise Linux vendor has the operating system
experience and the worldwide technical support capabilities that
Novell will be able to deliver. Novell is bringing our significant
resources to bear to help customers adopt Linux with more confidence,
giving them the freedom of choice Linux provides without the anxiety
over whether an open-source solution can truly be relied on for
mission-critical functions."
Novell briefly rode the success of its network OS (NOS) Novell
Netware products to the top of the software market until Microsoft
added native networking support to Windows. Novell then attempted to
wrest the office-productivity market from Microsoft, but the plan
backfired when Novell had to sell off the expensively purchased
WordPerfect unit to Corel. Today, the struggling company is working to
recast itself as an open-source juggernaut and return to the
profitability that has eluded it for more than 3 years. SUSE LINUX is
the second-largest Linux distribution in the world, after Red Hat
Linux, although Red Hat Linux recently announced its intention to exit
the desktop Linux market.