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At the Paris Solutions Linux show on Jan. 30, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europes 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 Novells recent sale, via Microsoft, to Wal-Mart, this deal appears to have been made solely on the Linux desktops 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-Marts former CIO, than with SUSEs 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. “Novells 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, Novells 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 markets only enterprise-class Linux desktop ready for routine business use. We are pleased to provide a compelling alternative to PSA Peugeot Citroens current proprietary desktop platform and help the organization reduce costs while advancing its next-generation IT architecture.”