Novell is a company that has run out of ideas. That's not to say it doesn't have some good software, or that there aren't some very good people working there. But the fact is that despite having SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and much else to offer, Novell is a company going nowhere fast.

Novell today is rolling out the newest edition of its flagship enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11. The new releases are the first major updates since the SLES and SLED 10 releases in July of 2006 and are the first enterprise Linux distro's to ever support Mono - .NET on Linux

Novell Inc. has added support for VMware Inc.'s Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP2, which Novell says will make SUSE run faster on VMware's ESX hypervisor.

More than 90% of all commercial Linux server subscriptions are from Novell and Red Hat, with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), respectively. A Gartner report gives Red Hat more than 60% of the paid Linux market, and Novell more than 30%. Why is Red Hat the Linux market share leader?

What is commercial Linux distributor Novell going to do about server and desktop virtualization? It's a good question, and one that the company's top brass has not really addressed. In July 2006, with the launch of SUSE Linux 10, Novell was the first commercial Linux vendor to ship a Xen hypervisor tuned for Linux.

Novell, the parent company of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, seems to have slapped a huge "For Sale!" sign on its front lawn. It's sad, but this famous enterprise OS maker may soon be little more than a mildly interesting footnote to history.

KnowledgeTree, the Cape Town-based open source document management company, has partnered with Novell to offer their system to SUSE Linux Enterprise customers.

If you recall, Novell's former best friend for SUSE Linux was Microsoft. Microsoft and Novell have a partnership where the two parties had certificates that indemnified SUSE users from any intellectual property liability. In addition, Microsoft officially recommended SUSE Linux Enterprise for hybrid Windows/Linux shops.

Novell helps non-profit educational company reduce costs by implementing ZENworks Asset Management and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Xen virtualization