Novell goes vernacular with Linux

Novell, the $1.6 billion infrastructure software and services corporation, is expanding the scope of its decade-old India development centre.

Novell is planning to launch versions of the Suse Linux operating system in five different Indian languages to cater to the growing Indian market, Rhonda O'Donnell, president, Novell Asia Pacific, said.

"We plan to launch it in Malyalam, Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali and Hindi," Rhonda said. However, the time of the launch was not specified.

The centre presently works on most of the key products being shipped by Novell worldwide and it will grow in stature to be a major focal point for the entire product portfolio in the near future.

The centre employs close to 350 engineers and this is also being scaled up to meet increase in demand.

Better known for its networking software, Novell has in the recent past increased its thrust in the Linux space. It is strongly asserting that its software enables better management in transition if an enterprise decides to shift to the Linux platform from Microsoft.

The company recently bought out its Indian partner Onward Technologies, making the Indian operations a wholly-owned subsidiary. It has said that the move indicates its commitment to bringing its Linux identity solutions to India.

Said Rhonda O'Donnel, "With this move to buy out our Indian partner, we will be able to better serve our Indian customers, while simultaneously enhancing our existing development and technical support operations in the regions."

She added that Open Source is the future of computing in much of the Asia-Pacific region and Linux is emerging as the de facto standards-based operating platform, notwithstanding differences between Red Hat's Linux and Novell's Suse Linux.

"By increasing our investment in India, we are well positioned to help drive Linux and Open-Source adoption not just in India, but in other emerging Asian markets as well," she added.