New Enterprise-Class Linux Desktop Previewed by Novell

Published: March 14, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

At its former stomping grounds in Germany, the new desktop implementation of SUSE Linux from Novell was a big item at the mammoth CeBIT computer trade show, which is held once a year in Hannover, Germany, and is arguably the largest IT event in the world.

Formerly known as the Novell Linux Desktop, the updated version of the software, now called SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), aims to have better compatibility with Microsoft's Windows and Office stack as well as ease of implementation and support compared to SUSE Linux, the high-end workstation version of SUSE Linux that used to be called SUSE Linux Professional. While SUSE Linux is always on the cutting edge, just behind the openSUSE project's code, SLED is supposed to be a simplified setup that is lags a bit behind the cutting edge, as corporate desktops often require. Having your most computer-savvy end users on the front edge of technology is one thing, but deploying feature-rich and newer stuff onto desktops in call centers, retail stores, bank branches, or other large pools of PCs is expensive, unnecessary, and foolish. Which is why Novell created NLD and now SLED in the first place.

While SUSE Linux is at the 10.0 release, Novell Linux Desktop is still at the 9.0 release, just like the server implementation, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), is. With SLED, the enterprise desktop will move to the SUSE 10 code base, which has its rough edges smoothed out.

SLED 10 will sport changes to the macro engines inside its implementation of OpenOffice that will allow "many" macros written in Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro language to run inside OpenOffice; how many will be compatible remains to be seen, but clearly, if you are aiming at general office workers, Office compatibility is a key factor. Novell will apparently contribute its tricks for running VBA macros back to the OpenOffice community. OpenOffice 2.0 supports both native Microsoft and OpenDocument file formats. SLED will also include the source X over OpenGL (XgL) 3D graphics subsystem that Novell previewed in February, and Novell says that it has conducted hundreds of usability tests spanning over 1,500 hours to help it improve the way its Linux desktop is laid out. The Evolution email client with connectors to IBM's Domino and Microsoft's Exchange mail servers; the GroupWise client runs natively on all SUSE Linuxes, of course.

Novell says that SLED 10 will be available this summer, and will cost less than one-tenth the cost if a Windows-Office stack from Microsoft. You can look at the SLED 10 preview right here.

One last thing: Why not just call SUSE Linux by a similar name to SLES and SLED? SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation, or SLEW, works just fine.