INDUSTRY

Novell announced today that the Open Enterprise Server product, which incorporates the best technologies from Novell's leading open source and commercial networking platforms, is currently expected to ship in February 2005, ten months ahead of the original schedule. Open Enterprise Server (OES) includes Novell's SUSE(R) LINUX Enterprise Server 9 and NetWare operating systems, along with a common management interface, allowing customers to choose how they want to deploy the proven networking, communication, collaboration and application services Novell offers. Novell plans to coordinate the release of OES with the early 2005 availability of the first service pack for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 (SLES9). This decision ensures that customers can deploy OES, and partners can certify their products to OES, knowing they'll receive the latest Linux improvements already integrated into the product. "OES represents the successful result of an ambitious effort to meld traditional commercial software with open source, and it will deliver the best of both worlds to customers," said David Patrick, Novell's vice president and general manager of Linux, Open Source, and Platform Services. "SLES9 shipped in August 2004, and we're on track to deliver upgrades to SLES9 via a service pack early next year. To make planning for OES easier for both customers and partners, we decided to deliver OES with the most current release of SLES9, meaning SLES9 with the service pack. We'll do the integration so our customers and partners don't have to." The current closed beta testing of OES extends through late November, at which time the product will be available for open beta. For more information about Open Enterprise Server or to register to obtain the beta software, visit http://www.novell.com/oes . For more on the capabilities of the underlying operating systems, see http://www.novell.com/linux/sles and http://www.novell.com/netware .