| Novell CEO: Linux's time is now |
Feb. 15, 2005
Novell Inc. CEO Jack Messman delivered a Linux valentine to CIOs at the opening keynote at LinuxWorld here on Tuesday, taking pains to emphasize that Linux is business-ready in terms of security, certification, indemnification, and being able to run in entire hardware and software stacks, including on the desktop.
"A great deal of progress has been made in the past 13 months alone," Messman told attendees. Whereas in last year's keynote Messman said that IT managers were still leery about Linux, particularly concerned about whom to call if something breaks, now Novell hears "fewer and fewer of these questions," he said.
"The good work the open-source community has done ... has encouraged IT executives to see the light," Messman said. "Many CIOs and CTOs [chief technology officers] agree that open source and Linux in particular is the center of the enterprise."
He pointed to surveys that show that 53 percent of all CIOs said open source will be the dominant technology by 2007, saying that Linux's strategic importance in enterprises will over time continue to bear fruit as Linux moves to the desktop.
"Today we see over 3 million production servers on Linux across the world," he said. "Though it's still a blip on the screen, some 10 million Linux desktops are running worldwide. All this shows Linux is strategic."
IT managers are interested in using Linux because it helps them achieve four critical objects, Messman said: to streamline and simplify IT with a common operating system that works on all popular hardware, to unify their IT staffs with one common body of knowledge based on Linux, to save infrastructure costs, and to prevent vendor lock-in.
Messman pointed to the range of work Novell has done to embrace Linux across all its product lines, including announcing this week the open-sourcing of code from eDirectory developer interfaces -- a move that will allow third-party applications to leverage eDirectory passwords for secure authentication.
The company also announced "Hula," an open-source project to create a collaboration server to provide Internet calendar and mail. Novell is open-sourcing more than 200,000 lines of code from its NetMail collaboration server product, which already has an installed base of more than 4 million users.
"It was a good place to start because it was developed for use over the Internet," Messman said of the NetMail code contribution. "Together, let's build a future of Internet collaboration, and let's do it on open source," he said, saying that he hoped that Hula would eventually give IBM's Lotus Notes, Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange and Novell's own GroupWise a run for their money.
Although much has been done to make Linux enterprise-ready, though, customers are asking for "much more," Messman said, including assurances that entire solutions, from hardware and software stacks up through middleware and on up to applications and the desktop, are all certified, that IT staffs have the skills to support it, and that IT executives have the ability to properly and completely train their staffs.
"It's this assurance that will remove barriers to adoption," Messman said.
Novell also announced on Tuesday the availability of Novell Security Manager powered by Astaro, a network security product that contains six perimeter security applications with an integrated management platform based on SuSE Linux that's designed to protect businesses from hackers, viruses, worms, spam and intrusions.
Regardless of Messman's pitching of the 100 percent enterprise, IT managers at the show were anything but convinced that Linux has been fleshed out sufficiently to fill out entire hardware and software enterprise stacks. Greg Kruse, director of product development at Leading Edge Design & Systems, in Severn, Md., and his colleague, Allen Lerner, director of network security, were particularly skeptical at the applause Messman got when he announced that all 6,000 Novell internal desktops are switching off of Windows and onto Linux.
"I think any flavor of Linux has so far to go before it can be fully integrated into the enterprise as a desktop," Lerner said. "Anything above the desktop, it's definitely got a strong foothold. All the tools [I use] for penetration testing, for auditing, for lockdown, they're all based on Linux. [But] it strikes me as odd that there's a roomful of people who think Linux on the desktop is ready for prime time. I use a Mac laptop."
Kruse agreed, pointing out that while an instructor at a Monday LinuxWorld workshop had a Linux laptop, he also had a Macintosh in his bag. "You're tied to the Office environment with all the products," he said.
"I integrate Mac with the Windows environment, and there are shortcomings, but I choose to live with the shortcomings," Lerner said. Everybody has Virtual Machine. Don't say [Linux is] 100 percent" capable of running in the enterprise, he said. "You can't get away from [Windows]."
If you enjoyed this article by eWEEK.com editors Lisa Vaas and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, be sure to check out eWEEK.com's Linux & Open Source Center for the latest open-source news, reviews, and analysis.
Catch up on all the latest LinuxWorld news in eWEEK's . . .
LinuxWorld Special Report
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
Approaching the Linux Desktop
The purpose of this paper is to help organizations evaluate the Linux desktop against their own enterprise needs and discover what benefits the Linux desktop might bring to their organizations.
Migrating To Linux: Application Challenges and Solutions
Several solutions exist to help organizations migrate in an orderly fashion from Windows to Linux desktops. This paper establishes the characteristics of an ideal cross-platform solution and reviews these alternatives in light of this ideal standard. The paper takes a closer look at the pros and cons of various solutions and outlines the business benefits that can be achieved.
Linux Advantages: Publicly Available Information on Linux Software
This paper offers a brief summary of readily-available Linux information to help businesses sort out this widely misunderstood operating system.
Top 5 Strategies for Managing Linux
Despite continuous evolution in the manageability of Linux, a 2006 survey cited manageability concerns as a top reason why organizations are hesitating to adopt Linux. Levanta believes Linux can be as manageable, if not more so, than other operating systems by following key strategies. These strategic recommendations were developed from experiences in numerous customer environments, both large and small.
Why Choose Novell for Linux?
This paper outlines the benefits of switching to the Linux platform and choosing Novell as a high-performance, enterprise solution.
Enterprise Linux Selection Guide
Considering moving your enterprise to the Linux operating system? Since there are so many similar versions, choosing the right one can be tough. This paper offers a clear process to help you make an informed decision and get the features, support, and cost that are right for your business and technical needs.
Overcoming Challenges in Managing Linux
Levanta has created a new administration model with innovative technology that breaks down the barriers to making the most of Linux systems. This paper will provide an in-depth look at the workings of Levanta’s product, the first Linux appliance of its kind.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 for Retail Businesses
Discover why major retailers have switched to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop in the back office. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is a low-cost desktop that offers a complete set of productivity applications and interoperates seamlessly with the other Windows, Macintosh and UNIX desktops in your store.
Moving to a Linux Desktop
Migrating from Windows to Linux on the desktop can be a substantial undertaking because it has the potential for touching -- and perhaps disrupting -- every user in your organization. Unlike a data center (server and infrastructure) migration that is largely transparent to users, the cultural and administrative transitions and environment readiness required to support a Linux desktop migration are extensive.
Seven Good Reasons to Exchange Exchange
This paper describes seven compelling reasons why you should switch from Exchange to Scalix.
|
|
|
|
|
news feed