* NetWare client for Linux; embedded Linux at Novell; Sun's latest utterings
This issue is a mish-mash of bits and pieces that don’t need a full issue of their own.
First, on the subject of a NetWare client for Linux, my Wired Windows column in this week’s Network World (https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2004/121304kearns.html) has the final word on what will be available and when. It won’t ship with Open Enterprise Server, but should be available soon thereafter. Read the whole column for all the details.
In response to last week’s issue about embedded Linux and Novell’s statement that it wouldn’t develop one, longtime reader Joe Whited reminded me that ZENworks imaging server “…uses a Linux PXE (network) boot image to bring up the imaging tools, and uses Linux to create the images and/or pull down the images.” He wonders, then, “Since this product was in the works prior to the SuSE acquisition, what version Linux is this, and why was this not mentioned in the embedded system stuff? The Linux used in the PXE config is less than 10M-bytes.” The answer, from ZENworks honcho Martin Buckley, is that Novell engineers “rolled their own” small footprint Linux but that they’ll soon be switching to a “really small and fast version of SuSE.” He also noted that the term “embedded” normally refers to something etched into the silicon of a hardware implementation, and I can’t disagree.
Finally, I’ve got to point out the odd thing Sun President Jonathan Schwarz said recently. “The operating systems wars are down to three – Microsoft Windows, Sun’s Solaris, and Red Hat’s Linux,” according Schwart, as reported in Linux World (https://www.linuxworld.com/story/47317.htm). While his comments were pointedly directed at HP and its HP-UX operating system, to overlook IBM and Novell shows once again why Sun really isn’t a factor in enterprise computing.
That’s all for today, see you next issue.
