Novell Announces SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1

Update offers enhanced virtualization, improved high availability and more flexible maintenance and support options

AMSTERDAM, May 19, 2010 - BrainShare EMEA — Novell today launched SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise 11
Service Pack 1 (SP1), which delivers the industry's broadest virtualization
capabilities, powerful advances in high availability clustering, and more
flexible maintenance and support options. As a result, customers can take
advantage of the latest open source technologies to run their
mission-critical services cost effectively on any platform - physical,
virtual or cloud (www.novell.com/cloud/) - today, as well as in the
future.

"As an Air Traffic Control service provider, we naturally place the
highest demands on the quality and reliability of the software products we
use," said Dr. Stefan Schimanski, Head of Linux Competence and Service
Center, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung. "SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 fully meets
these requirements, which makes it our strategic choice for mission-critical
systems. With Service Pack 1, Novell continues to improve the already
rock-solid basis while making new and innovative features ready for the
enterprise."

Major technical advancements from data center to desktop

SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP1 is optimized for all IT infrastructures -
physical, virtual and cloud - and offers numerous advancements, including:

    - Broadest virtualization
      (www.novell.com/solutions/virtualization-workload/virtualization.html)
      support, including the latest Xen* 4.0 hypervisor with significantly
      improved virtual input/output performance, support for KVM, an emerging
      open source virtualization hypervisor, and Linux integration components
      in Hyper-V* - an industry first.
    - Best open source high-availability
      (www.novell.com/products/highavailability/) solution, with
      clustering advances such as support for metro area clusters, simple
      node recovery with ReaR, the leading open source disaster recovery
      framework, and new administrative tools including a cluster simulator
      and web-based GUI.
    - First enterprise Linux distribution with an updated 2.6.32
      kernel, which leverages the RAS features in Intel* Xeon* processor 7500
      and 5600 series, such as MCA recovery, improved MPIO hardware support;
      new floating point and cryptographic features that deliver improved
      performance and security like AES-NI, as well as Intel* Rapid Storage
      Technology enterprise, fully implemented for robust software RAID.
    - New technology on the desktop
      (www.novell.com/products/desktop/), including improved audio
      and Bluetooth* support, as well as the latest versions of Firefox,
      OpenOffice.org and Evolution(TM), which includes MAPI enhancements for
      improved interoperability with Microsoft* Exchange.

"With our long history of collaboration, Intel and Novell share the
common goal of developing solutions that provide our customers with
Linux-based solutions ranging from basic infrastructure and high performance
computing to mission-critical enterprise workloads," said Doug Fisher, vice
president, Intel Software and Service Group and general manager, System
Software Division. "The combination of Intel* Xeon* processor 7500 and 5600
series and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1 provides even more
opportunity for enterprise customers to run the most mission-critical
workloads, replace costly legacy proprietary platforms, and deploy
virtualized workloads for data center operational efficiencies."

New programs enable customer choice and better technology integration

With SP1, Novell 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. While current releases deliver the most value with proactive
maintenance updates and patches, for customers that place a premium on
stability, this program delivers superior control and flexibility by allowing
them to decide when and how to upgrade. Long Term Service Pack Support will
continue to be available for customers that want full technical support and
fixes backported to earlier releases. Also with SP1, Novell announces
enhancements to the Partner Linux Driver Program, a program that allows SUSE
Linux Enterprise customers to receive the latest supported hardware drivers
and kernel modules from the Novell(R) partner ecosystem in a timely manner.

"IBM is committed to helping clients design, deliver and implement
innovative Linux solutions that meet their unique business needs," said Dan
Frye, vice president, Open Systems Development, IBM. "The Partner Linux
Driver Program's tools and program support provide our joint clients with
drivers and modules that integrate seamlessly with SUSE Linux Enterprise, and
are well maintained and supported."

Josh Kahn, vice president of Product Management, Storage and Availability
Management Group, Symantec, said, "The Partner Linux Driver Program allows us
to rapidly bring to market the drivers and modules which enable our products
like Veritas Storage Foundation to run on SUSE Linux Enterprise. Our joint
customers benefit from the timely release of our respective technologies, and
can more easily plan and manage their upgrade cycles."

IBM and Symantec are joined by other component, system and software
vendors like AMD, Broadcom, Brocade, Dell, Emulex, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, LSI,
Microsoft, nVidia, QLogic and SGI that leverage Partner Linux Driver Program
tools, specifications, processes and program support to more easily and cost
effectively bring to market and support their third-party technology together
with SUSE Linux Enterprise. Novell's partners provide more than 5,000
certified applications today for SUSE Linux Enterprise, twice that of the
next closest enterprise Linux* distribution provider.

"Our customers have told us what they want, and we've listened," said
Markus Rex, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform
Solutions at Novell. "With SP1, not only are we delivering technical
innovations that allow them to run their mission-critical workloads reliably,
securely and affordably, we're also providing commercial support and partner
programs with unprecedented flexibility, innovation and control. SUSE Linux
Enterprise 11 SP1 gives our customers superior investment protection through
a low-risk, highly-capable platform that they can deploy and rely on for
years."

Complete product line upgrade available

Designed to address customer needs for reliable, high performing and
secure computing across the enterprise, SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP1 contains
major upgrades to the following products:

    - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
    - SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
    - SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension, an advanced
      clustering product that ensures uptime for mission-critical
      applications
    - SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service, Novell's specialized
      Linux solution for retail computing
    - SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack, a set of
      drivers which improves the performance of Windows* 7 and Windows Server
      2008 R2 virtual guests

These upgraded products will be generally available on June 2. Preview
DVDs are available today at BrainShare EMEA. For a limited time, qualifying
customers can receive free training, migration assistance and unlimited
virtualization support with their purchase of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
subscriptions. For more information, visit
www.novell.com/promo/suse/sle11sp1.html.

Linux Day 2010 Tour

Beginning today, Novell is featuring SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service
Pack 1 in major cities across the United States. The first events will be in
New York and California, and will also showcase how to build, test and run
core images for any workload - physical, virtual or cloud - using SUSE
Studio(TM) (www.novell.com/promo/home/susestudio.html) . For more
information and to register for the tour, visit
www.novell.com/company/events/linux-days.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in Intelligent Workload Management,
helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across
physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. We help customers reduce
the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through our
solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and
Linux-based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software and
ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing
people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit
www.novell.com.

Novell and SUSE are registered trademarks and Evolution and Studio are
trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *All
third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Charlotte Betterley of Novell, +1-781-464-8059, cbetterley at novell.com; or Erica Burns of PAN Communications, +1-978-474-1900, novell at pancomm.com, for Novell, Inc.