SuSE Linux plans to begin selling in about two weeks its enterprise desktop operating system in the U.S. and Europe.The product, called SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop during its development phase, will ship under the name SuSE Linux Desktop and cost $600 for five PCs, the minimum number of licenses that can be bought, said Holger Dyroff, SuSE’s Americas general manager. That price includes one year of maintenance for each license, which includes all updates and enhancements to the product. The maintenance period can be extended to five years at a cost of $90 for each of the additional four years. Discounts to this basic pricing structure kick in for high-volume purchases, he said.SuSE Linux Desktop joins two other desktop operating systems from SuSE: SuSE Linux, designed for individual users, and SuSE Linux Office Desktop, aimed at small offices.It is the company’s recommended front end to its server operating system, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, because SuSE Linux Desktop was built to be “perfectly tuned” with it, SuSE said in a statement Monday. SuSE Linux Desktop is designed for enterprise environments, from small 10-desktop installations to large deployments of over 100,000 PCs installed in multiple locations, according to SuSE.As such, the operating system has been designed for automated and central administration, maintenance and deployment through internal functions and external tools. SuSE Linux Desktop comes bundled with Sun’s StarOffice 6.0 office suite, but can also run Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint through Codeweavers’ CrossOver Office 2.0. Printing and display compatibility with Microsoft fonts is provided through Agfa Monotype fonts. SuSE Linux Desktop can also run IBM’s Lotus Notes through the Codeweavers product..SuSE Linux Desktop comes with security functions, interfaces to application servers and mainframe systems, and support for a variety of SuSE and third-party system administration tools.German life insurance company Stuttgarter Lebensversicherung is phasing out IBM’s OS/2 desktop operating system and will install SuSE Linux Desktop in about 1,300 PCs at over 20 locations in Germany this year, with more PCs in branch offices being migrated next year, Nuremberg, Germany-based SuSE said Monday.SuSE announced SuSE Linux Desktop in October 2002 and planned to ship it in this year’s first quarter but delayed it until this month. Related content news Dell provides $150M to develop an AI compute cluster for Imbue Helping the startup build an independent system to create foundation models may help solidify Dell’s spot alongside cloud computing giants in the race to power AI. By Elizabeth Montalbano Nov 29, 2023 4 mins Generative AI news DRAM prices slide as the semiconductor industry starts to decline TSMC is reported to be cutting production runs on its mature process nodes as a glut of older chips in the market is putting downward pricing pressure on DDR4. By Sam Reynolds Nov 29, 2023 3 mins Flash Storage Technology Industry news analysis Cisco, AWS strengthen ties between cloud-management products Combining insights from Cisco ThousandEyes and AWS into a single view can dramatically reduce problem identification and resolution time, the vendors say. By Michael Cooney Nov 28, 2023 4 mins Network Management Software Cloud Computing opinion Is anything useful happening in network management? Enterprises see the potential for AI to benefit network management, but progress so far is limited by AI’s ability to work with company-specific network data and the range of devices that AI can see. By Tom Nolle Nov 28, 2023 7 mins Generative AI Network Management Software Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe