Price

It is priced at a modest Rs 2,650 for the desktop version for a year, which includes the OS, office, collaboration software and other tools; and Rs 40,000 for enterprise server systems, where one copy could be used for 10 CPUs.

Installation

The Desktop 10 can be installed on the same PC as your existing Windows system. During installation, YaST (a powerful administrative tool) allows you to automatically resize your hard disk to accommodate Linux. Once Linux is installed, you can use the Linux boot manager to select the operating system you want to boot every time you power up the machine. Minimum system requirements include 256 MB RAM, 800 MB available disk space and an Intel Pentium III 500 MHz or higher processor.   

Software support

Support is an area, which deters many users from switching to new software, but the management at Novell feels that support for Linux based software is being worked on aggressively.  MD at Novell West Asia, Revathi Kasturi  says, “There is adequate support that we are providing through online customer centers, upgrades and patches that are freely available online. We also offer telephonic support through call centers that are based in India and abroad.”

Kasturi also believes that open source gives such software users the desired level of flexibility that they desire.

Target users

Any company which is operating as an open enterprise or on the open source architecture is a potential client. Revathi Kasturi says, “Everyone from the government, banking and financial services, and the telecom industry should be using this. Studies show that there is a 70-80% growth in the usage and adoption of Linux which ofcourse is canibalising the use of UNIX and Windows.”

The product is likely to take Microsoft's long-awaited Vista OS head on. Novell could be hoping that the Indian market will see its OS as a better upgrade than a switch to Vista.

With these great new features and the flexibility of operation, the world might soon adopt open source and spin the Linux way. Meanwhile, the wait for Windows Vista continues.

By-Kishore Butani & Sakshi Sharma