Novell To Udate OES In 4Q

Expected later this year, Novell will release an update to the Open Enterprise Server 2 product. Targeted for a 4Q release with a public beta this summer, Novell plans to add support for 64-bit eDirectory, improved migration tools, and Domain Services for Windows -- a feature that was originally slated for the OES2 release, but was pulled for quality reasons. Another enhancement that should make the release is AFP protocol support, to help bring OES Linux closer to feature complete with NetWare.

Domain Services for Windows allows the OES2 server to act like an Active Directory server, so Windows clients can connect to resources on the OES2 server without the need for a NetWare client. This was something that was shown at BrainShare in 2007, but didn't make it into the shipping product.

With this update, the migration over to OES Linux finally looks compelling. Any legacy applications that must be run on NetWare can use NetWare virtualized under XEN.