Novell's next-generation SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform started shipping on Monday. It includes both a desktop (SLED) and a server (SLES). Poor beaten-up Novell badly needs it to repair its reputation and improve its numbers.

Aside from seeing whether people push Microsoft off the business desktop and embrace Novell's new and improved Linux desktop, the thing also provides the first supported version of Xen virtualization, though still largely a prototype. (Red Hat won't pick it up until later this year.) The desktop includes Xgl graphics eye candy, integrated search and OpenOffice 2.0 at a price meant to undercut Microsoft considerably.

Novell's desktop subscriptions list for $50 per device a year or $125 for three years with 90 days of technical assistance and product updates for the life of the contract. Server subscriptions start at $349 a server and rise to $1,499 - depending on the support level and regardless of the underlying chip unless you're talking mainframes when the stuff runs $12k-$18k a year. There's no additional support cost for virtual server images.

Novell says customers can save as much as $1,000 over a Red Hat subscription. Red Hat of course controls the lion's share of the Linux marketplace. Novell is going to try to get people who use SUSE 10 to register to boost sales and renewals. Whether that makes a difference remains to be seen.
See www.novell.com/linux.