Novell seeks to fight off Volish plague

NETWORKING Novell says the Open Workgroup Suite it unveiled today offers customers an open, low-cost alternative to Voleware.

The company said it wants to entice enterprises away from "Windows-centric solutions".

Utah-based Novell reckons its Open Workgroup Suite is a collection of the "most advanced open source office products in the market." It includes server and desktop components and can save customers up to seventy percent the cost of deploying Voleware, the company proclaimed.

The Linux platform version of the Open Workgroup Suite starts with a rental option for $80 per year or $110 per device/user for a perpetual licence.

Customers, "don't want to feel locked in or pay for more functionality than their environment may need," said Parker "Spidey" Pearson, director of marketing for Novell partner Advanced Logic Industries.

The suite includes Novell Open Enterprise Server (with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), Novell GroupWise for collaboration, Novell ZENworks Suite for cross-platform systems management, Novell Linux Desktop and the popular OpenOffice.org for Windows [cough!] and Linux.

A cross-platform version can be deployed on any supported platform.

Who needs "proprietary workgroup solutions", asked Jeff Jaffe, a Novell Veep. "The Open Workgroup Suite was created in response to the market's demand for greater choice and flexibility and is a perfect example of our strategy to source and deliver the best blend of technologies based on open standards and open sauce," he flannelled. µ

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