Novell bundles collaboration server, Linux

Novell is offering a free version of Suse Linux Enterprise Server with its latest GroupWise collaboration server, which it released Tuesday.

Novell's decision to bundle Suse Linux Enterprise Server with GroupWise 7 aims to take away one of the barriers to the adoption of the collaboration server, Novell's vice-president Ed Anderson had said in June when outlining details of the upcoming product. Anderson said that one barrier to companies buying GroupWise has been the additional servers required for migration.

The decision to include the Linux server operating system for free may also be aimed at persuading existing GroupWise customers to migrate from NetWare to Linux, a key part of Novell's strategy.

GroupWise 7 runs on various server operating systems, including NetWare and Windows 2003. It has various changes, such as integrated e-mail and instant messaging, and beefed-up Microsoft Outlook support.