而且這份協議完全和幾周前的微軟-Novell-wallmart解決方案不同，這次是Novell公司的Linux單獨部署。
At the Paris Solutions Linux show on Jan. 30, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe's second-largest automobile manufacturer, and Novell announced the signing of a multiyear contract for the deployment of up to 20,000 Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installations plus 2,500 copies of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Unlike recent Novell Linux deals that were released with a great deal of fanfare, such as Novell's recent sale, via Microsoft, to Wal-Mart, this deal appears to have been made solely on the Linux desktop's own merits. In the Wal-Mart deal, as ace Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley noted, getting SUSE Linux into Wal-Mart had more to do with Microsoft COO Kevin Turner having been Wal-Mart's former CIO, than with SUSE's virtues.
This major SUSE deal with PSA Peugeot Citroen is another matter. "We found SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to be well supported and extremely user friendly," an IT representative for PSA Peugeot Citroen stated. "Novell's commitment to open source and close collaboration with leading hardware and application vendors to ensure the support of our IT requirements were key factors in our choice.
That said, the Microsoft/Novell partnership appears to have played a roll in this deal as well. The Citroen representative went on to say, "In addition, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop integrates seamlessly in our Windows-based infrastructure."
Ron Hovsepian, Novell's president and CEO, said, "PSA Peugeot Citroen has discovered the value a market-ready Linux platform can bring to their business, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is the market's only enterprise-class Linux desktop ready for routine business use. We are pleased to provide a compelling alternative to PSA Peugeot Citroen's current proprietary desktop platform and help the organization reduce costs while advancing its next-generation IT architecture."
According to Novell, SLED delivers ease of use at lower hardware cost and many innovative features including three-dimensional desktop graphics, integrated search and a fully compatible office productivity suite through the Novell edition of OpenOffice.org 2, all at a small fraction of the price of the proprietary operating system and office suite alternatives.
At Novell's recently launched Vista/Linux comparison site, SLED costs only $50 compared to Vista Business's $299. Adding in Microsoft Office Professional 2007 for Windows Vista dumps another $499 on the Microsoft bill. When it comes to price, SLED for business appears to beat the tar out of Vista Business.
Novell advertises SLED as being suited for complete desktop replacements, retail point of service solutions, thin-client deployments, and engineering workstations. Many reviewers, and now Citroen, agree