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Novell Inc. has boosted its SuSE Linux support in an update to its Ximian Desktop 2 just weeks before its planned acquisition of SuSE Linux AG is likely to be completed.
The enhanced Ximian Desktop 2, which already supported both SuSE Linuxs and Red Hat Inc.s Linux distribution, now supports the latest SuSE Linux releases, namely SuSE Linux Desktop and SuSE Linux 9.0, Novell announced this week. Ximian Desktop 2 was first launched in June and provides a set of desktop applications for Linux and interoperability with Windows file format.
Novell, of Provo, Utah, has been pushing headlong into the Linux market. It had acquired Ximian Inc. and its desktop Linux products in August, and then in November it announced plans to buy SuSE Linux, of Nuremberg, Germany for $210 million. The SuSE Linux acquisition is expected to close by the end of this month.
Novell spokesman Kevan Barney said that the Ximian team had planned to add updated SuSE Linux support in Ximian Desktop 2 regardless of Novells plans to buy SuSE Linux.
“This is business as usual for Ximian division,” Barney said.
The Ximian Desktop 2 update also includes a Ximian Edition for the latest OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Version 1.1, the GAIM instant messaging client and an updated Ximian Red Carpet 2.0 configuration management client software, Novell said.
Ximian Desktop 2 can be downloaded for free here. A professional edition also is available for $99 that includes technical support, software updates and additional fonts and content plug-ins. Discuss This in the eWEEK Forum