Novell launches campaign for software appliances based on Suse

Novell is offering software vendors a platform for the development of their own software appliances. The platform is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS – "just enough operating system" –, a trimmed down version of Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) that is currently only available as a beta version. Applications certified for SLES will be automatically co-certified for SLES JeOS.

SuSE appliances will not run on real x86 hardware, but rather as virtual machines with a para-virtualized kernel. Novell says the target platforms include the Xen hypervisor, VMware's ESX Server and Microsoft's Hyper-V, which, like Novell's JeOS, is still in the beta phase. At the same time, the Linux distributor has announced it will officially be taking part in the LimeJeOS project. The community initiative is working on a minimal version of Opensuse.

With SuSE Linux Enterprise JeOS, Novell is entering a growing market of providers. Last autumn, Canonical presented the Ubuntu JeOS Edition for virtualised appliances, and Red Hat presented an Appliance Operating System (AOS) at its Linux Automation initiative. The leading provider of streamlined versions of Linux for appliances is US firm rPath, whose rPath Linux, rBuilder and rBuilder Online have been providing tools to create appliances for some time.

(trk)