Brainshare: Novell announce SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP1

At this year's Brainshare EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) conference, taking place in Amsterdam from the 18th to the 21st of May, Novell announced the launch of the first service pack for version 11 of SUSE Linux Enterprise. The service pack will be generally available on the 2nd of June.

With Service Pack 1, SLE 11 will feature a number of updates, including the 2.6.32 Linux kernel that supports kernel-based mode setting (KMS). Audio and Bluetooth support has been improved and package updates include OpenOffice.org, the Evolution mail client and Mozilla's Firefox web browser. Other improvements include support for version 4.0 of the Xen hypervisor, the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualisation infrastructure and integration components in Hyper-V.

Novell says that it is "implementing more flexible support options that will allow customers to remain on older package releases during the product's life cycle, and will significantly lower the hurdle to deploy upcoming service packs." The company notes that the program is aimed at customers that place a premium on stability and want more control and flexibility on when and how to upgrade. Novell hopes that this will "lower the hurdle" when releasing upcoming service packs. With SP1, improvements have been made to the Partner Linux Driver Program that allows Novell's customers to receive the latest drivers and kernel modules from its partners.

More details about SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1 are available on Novell's SP1 promo web site.

See also:

• Novell Announces SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1, press release from Novell.
• SUSE Linux Enterprise 11's renewal plans, a report from The H.
• Novell BrainShare EMEA conference returns to Europe, a report from The H.

(crve)