Well, I read today that Novell decided to buy SuSe, the German Linux distribution maker.

As you may remember, Novell bought Ximian a few months ago. Ximian makes the Outlook clone for Linux, Evolution, and software that connects Evolution to the Microsoft Exchange server. Ximian also makes the Ximian Desktop product, which I think is a GNOME based desktop environment for Linux.

SuSe is one of the oldest Linux distributors, having been founded by university students in Germany, in 1992. SuSe sells a desktop edition, two server editions, and a groupware server product called SuSe Linux OpenExchange server. The OpenExchange product is of particular interest, since the (Windows based) Microsoft Outlook program can connect to it.

The OpenExchange server has a nifty web based interface, offering everything from webmail to a knowledge base to forums, to a contact manager.

Here are some screenshots:





(An online live demo of the control panel is available at SuSe's site.)

Clearly, SuSe is moving away from being purely a Linux distribution maker and towards providing a product that competes with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

I know that Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 supports webmail, but I am not sure it has similar web applications for group collaboration, such as knowledge management, forums, calendars, etc. Exchange Server requires Windows Server 2003; the price for the standard Windows Server 2003 edition with 10 "Client Access Licenses" (CALs) is $1199. Additionally, you have to buy a CAL at $67 for each "client" (Microsoft Outlook User) that you'd like to connect to the Microsoft Exchange Server. For ten Outlook users, it would cost an additional $670. The standard edition of Microsoft Exchange server costs $699 and its enterprise edition costs $3999. So, lets add it up, assuming we go with Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server Enterprise Edition, and 10 CALs: $1199 + $3999 + $670 = $5868.

SuSe's OpenExchange Server costs $1249, and includes 12 months of support and software updates. As far as I understand, no separate purchase of the SuSe Linux server is required. The webmail interface can be used to send and receive email, and licenses covering 10 webmail users are included in the package. As a plus, SuSe allows for an unlimited number of Desktop email clients to access the server using IMAP or POP. Assuming you use Mozilla Mail or Thunderbird for email access, you would pay nothing extra. If you buy 10 licenses of Ximian Desktop 2 which contains the email program Evolution, you pay $990. Adding it up, you get a maximum total cost of $2249. So which seems to be a better deal to you?

I can clearly see how Novell is repositioning itself to compete head on with Microsoft in the groupware field, primarily on the basis of total cost of ownership. Now that it has bought SuSe and Ximian, it has the right people and tools to do so.

It is hard to say who will win, but it is also hard to avoid rooting for Novell / SuSe.

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