* Novell releases prices for Open Enterprise Server
As you read this, BrainShare will just be getting underway; but this BrainShare will be quite different from any other that I’ve attended. As I write this, I don’t know what announcements Novell will make on the Monday of BrainShare, the traditional day to launch new programs, announce new product shipments and outline future roadmaps. But it seems Novell already did all of those things – at last month’s LinuxWorld as well as at CeBIT, the European computer fair in Hannover, Germany last week.
The big news out of CeBIT was that Novell announced SuSE Linux 9.3. The minor news, evidently, was that Open Enterprise Server (OES) was now shipping. At least, based on the press coverage, that’s what you’d be led to think. Why a minor release of Linux is more important than the first major release of a new server operating system is beyond me. But, then, SuSE was a German company and CeBIT does take place in Hannover, Germany. So perhaps the reaction isn’t quite so surprising.
Still, for Novell to think that there’d be greater impact by releasing this news at CeBIT than at it’s own show is just one more nail in the coffin of the “old” Novell. But let’s look on the positive side, shall we?
OES is, finally, shipping. Pricing is oddly consistent even though it’s being sold in 5-, 10-, 25-, 50- and 100-user packages. Essentially, it’s $50 plus $97 per user. That’s for folks upgrading from NetWare or any “competitive” product. The list of competitive products is so long and inclusive, though that I wouldn’t expect anyone to have to pay full list.
Among the competitive products listed are OS/2 Warp Server and IBM LAN Server (I’m not sure anyone actually bought that last item). The full list is:
* Microsoft Windows NT4.
* Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
* Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition; Windows Server 2003 Web Edition.
* Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
* IBM OS/2 Warp Server.
* SCO UnixWare 7.
* Microsoft LAN Manager.
* IBM LAN Server.
* Banyan Vines.
That’s just about every server operating system to ship in the past dozen years or more. Although why LAN Manager is included but not NT 3.5 or 3.51 (which are later products) is curious, but probably just a Novell marketing lapse. I’m sure that, if you ask, you would be able to get the upgrade price for NT 3.5x. Or 3Com’s 3Plus, for that matter!
You can, if you don’t already have a copy, download a 30-day evaluation of OES. And if you haven’t already tried it out, you should get a copy. This is, despite the ho-hum nature of the press coverage, a major release of a significant product. It is a product you will most likely be moving to in the near future, especially once you try it out. It will be interesting to see if Novell is promoting it heavily this week at BrainShare.
