XIMIAN RED CARPET ENTERPRISE MANAGES MAINFRAMES RUNNING LINUX.

Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced that its Linux management software, Ximian(R) Red Carpet Enterprise, can now maintain and manage IBM eServer systems in a SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server (SLES) environment. Red Carpet Enterprise provides centralized and automated management and maintenance of IBM's Linux on POWER eServer systems and IBM's mainframe zSeries systems running Linux to significantly reduce the cost of Linux ownership in the datacenter, allowing customers to concentrate resources on other strategic projects.

"This combines IBM's innovative Linux on POWER and mainframe servers with best-of-breed Linux management tools, allowing customers to achieve the benefits of Linux in their mission-critical datacenters," said Alan Nugent, Novell CTO. "It also demonstrates the strength of our relationship with IBM, opens up new markets for Novell and continues our commitment to provide customers platform choice in all levels of their enterprise."

With this announcement, Red Carpet Enterprise becomes the first "off-the-shelf" solution for managing IBM's Linux on POWER systems in an SLES environment, continuing Novell's commitment to enable customers to run their network services on Linux. Following the acquisitions of Ximian and SUSE, Novell is the only major vendor to offer a complete stack of enterprise-class Linux solutions.

"The ability to manage and maintain software in a Linux environment has been a major challenge for customers wanting to deploy Linux in the datacenter," said Brian Connors, IBM vice president, Linux on POWER. "IBM is giving customers choice, and the demand for Linux on POWER solutions is significantly increasing. Reducing the time and cost of managing Linux servers, makes the power of our IBM eServer pSeries and other leading-edge systems much more accessible and cost effective for the Linux community. We are pleased to be working with innovative partners like Novell to help deliver superior, low-cost solutions to customers."

IBM's Linux on POWER architecture offerings are about customer choice, part of IBM's overall IBM eServer strategy. By combining the flexibility and cost savings of Linux with the scalability and robustness of the leading-edge 64-bit IBM eServer platforms, customers across industries are integrating their e-business environments using Linux on POWER as a means to save costs and consolidate workloads. From the Linux OS-ready, POWER processor-based IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 through the IBM eServer pSeries and iSeries platforms, IBM is the only company offering customers systems that are supported by a single, proven 64-bit architecture.

Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise, part of the Novell(R) Resource Management solution, provides automated and intelligent Linux package dependency analysis and conflict resolution to ease software management. The ability for Red Carpet Enterprise to schedule updates of Linux software to user-defined groups across an enterprise helps cut IT costs by dramatically simplifying the process of managing Linux software updates. With rapid deployment and broad support for Linux distributions and applications, organizations can realize a quick return on investment.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. is a provider of information solutions that deliver secure identity management (Novell Nsure(TM)), Web application development (Novell exteNd(TM)) and cross-platform networking services (Novell Nterprise(TM)), all supported by strategic consulting and professional services (Novell Ngage(SM). Active in the open source community with its Ximian and SUSE LINUX brands, Novell provides a full range of Linux products and services for the enterprise, from the desktop to the server. Novell's vision of one Net -- a world without information boundaries -- helps customers realize the value of their information securely and economically.

For more information, call 801/861-3407 or 888/321-4272 or visit http://www.ximian.com/products/redcarpet_enterprise or http://www.novell.com.