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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 11, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 32
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Systems/Enterprise:
NOVELL ACQUIRES XIMIAN TO EXPAND OPEN SOURCE COMMITMENT
Novell, Inc., announced it has acquired privately held Ximian of Boston,
Mass., the leading provider of desktop and server solutions that enable
enterprise Linux adoption. This acquisition expands Novell's capacity to
provide flexible information solutions to customers worldwide. Terms of the
transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition of Ximian expands Novell's ability to support Linux solutions
as the company adds best-of-breed Linux desktop, groupware and management
technologies, and welcomes several of the open source community's leading
visionaries to the Novell team and a strong core of Linux developers into
the Novell fold.
Novell gains, and will carry forward, two key Linux market initiatives through
Ximian that reinforce Novell's commitment to the open source community: GNOME,
a project to provide a full-featured Linux desktop, and Mono, designed to
allow applications developed using Microsoft .NET to run on Linux, UNIX*,
Windows* and other platforms. The combination of Novell's network and
infrastructure services with Ximian's Linux solutions provides compelling new
value to customers leveraging the power of open source technologies.
"Linux is the fastest-growing platform in the market today because it helps
customers meet challenges effectively, both from a cost and a performance
perspective," said Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "But customers
still face two key business issues: how to provide cost-effective management
and maintenance of Linux systems, and how to deploy and support low-cost Linux
desktops within the organization. Novell now delivers market-leading solutions
for both. Just as important, Ximian brings Novell unparalleled Linux
expertise, helping us not only deliver more value to customers, but also
strengthening our ability to work with and leverage open source initiatives
more constructively."
"Together, Novell and Ximian offer tremendous benefits for customers," said
David Patrick, president and CEO of Ximian, now general manager of what will
be called the Novell Ximian Services business unit at Novell. "Our
breakthrough management and desktop products strongly complement Novell
applications on Linux and Novell Nterprise Linux Services. The global
Novell channel, partnerships with industry leaders and proven customer support
will benefit customers. Novell as an enterprise company is the ideal choice
for us to drive growth for the Linux market as a whole."
Ximian Offerings Bolster Novell Linux Strategy for Enterprises
Ximian, a market-leading Linux company founded in 1999, has over a million
users worldwide of its desktop and management products aimed at lowering the
total cost of Linux ownership for enterprise customers. Ximian Red Carpet
is the de facto standard for software updating across leading Linux
distributions. Red Carpet Enterprise software provides enterprise customers
with centralized software management of Linux servers and desktops. Over time,
Red Carpet Enterprise will be tightly integrated into the Novell ZENworks
product line, leveraging Novell directory services and policies management
functionality.
Ximian Desktop 2 (XD2) is a complete Linux desktop environment and a tightly
integrated suite of Linux desktop applications that delivers robust support
for Windows file formats, networks and standards. Ximian Evolution software
seamlessly integrates e-mail, calendaring, contact management and task lists
in one easy-to-use application that connects to popular corporate
communications architectures like Microsoft Exchange, Sun* ONE and, soon,
Novell GroupWise via client-side Ximian Connector extensions. These
solutions, supporting Red Hat, SuSE and other leading Linux distributions,
make Ximian software a strong choice for organizations using Linux desktops
within a mixed Windows/Linux computing environment.
"This acquisition allows us to pursue our shared goal, and that is to reduce
the barriers to Linux adoption in the enterprise. This combination can do just
that, and make Novell the number one Linux solutions company in the process,"
said Nat Friedman, Ximian co-founder and senior vice president, now vice
president of research and development in the Novell Ximian Services business
unit at Novell. "We're extremely excited to join with Novell to pursue a
shared vision of leadership in a full range of integrated Linux desktop and
server software for the enterprise, backed by world-class management tools,
support and services. We also believe that Novell's commitment and resources
can help further energize a very dynamic open source development community."
Novell to Build on Ximian Commitment to Open Source Community
Ximian plays an important leadership role in the broader open source community
and helps drive several key open source projects. Ximian's founders Miguel de
Icaza and Nat Friedman, well-known open source visionaries, helped found the
GNOME and Mono projects, both initiatives they will continue to lead at
Novell.
The GNOME project (www.gnome.org), initiated by de Icaza in 1997 and involving
hundreds of developers globally, is creating a full-featured open source
desktop, including a set of development tools; file, desktop management and
help systems; and a set of applications, including spreadsheets, word
processors, Web browsers, image editors and music players. The GNOME
Foundation, which includes Friedman, de Icaza and other Ximian employees on
its board, boasts IBM, HP, Sun and Red Hat among its members.
The Mono project (www.go-mono.com) is an open source effort led by Ximian to
provide developers with open source tools for building cross-platform
Microsoft .NET applications that can run on Linux, UNIX, and other support
platforms. More than 150 developers worldwide contribute to Mono, including a
range of companies building commercial products using Mono technology.
De Icaza, CTO of Ximian and now chief technology officer for the Novell Ximian
Services business unit of Novell, said, "It's a huge step forward for the open
source community to gain strong support from a company like Novell.
Initiatives like GNOME and Mono will only improve with Novell's resources
behind them. Novell has already made a strong commitment to open source with
its recent decision to put the full range of its network services on Linux and
its inclusion of MySQL*, Apache and other open source technologies in
NetWare. Ximian's leadership within the open source community along with
Novell's strength and reputation in the enterprise market are a powerful
combination that will help move GNOME and Mono forward."
The acquisition of Ximian was an all-cash transaction and is not expected to
have a material effect on Novell's financial statements in the current fiscal
year. No further details as to the specific terms of the transaction are being
disclosed.
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