Penguin

WLUG Meeting - Novell and Linux

Guest speaker: Paul Kangro,
Asia-Pacific Solutions Manager
Novell

Quick Overview of topics Paul covered:

  • government requirements for non-proprietary file formats (India, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, ...)
  • "TCO" arguments (Robert Francis Group study - Linux 55.9% cheaper TCO than Windows, 87.3% cheaper than Solaris)
  • lots of demand for Linux OperatingSystem support and maintenance
  • hardware vendors wanting commercial support

Desktop stuff:

  • Novell Linux Desktop (based on SUSE 9)

    • no vendor lock-in
    • reduced licensing costs
  • YAST (configuration tool) open sourced
  • Ximian bought by Novell

    • Mono - (Spanish for "monkey")
  • Evolution2 - MS Exchange Connector open sourced
  • NetWare-style filesystem permissions - policies/views
  • CrossoverOffice
  • Novell's eDirectory on linux

iFolder

  • transparently do incremental backups of directories
  • client-server model - ease of syncing/restoring
  • version 3 written in Mono using Eclipse

Thanks to Paul for an interesting presentation!

7pm, 23rd Sept University of Waikato Room: LitB