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Novell Software Businesses SuSE United States Linux

HHS Signs Major Linux Deal With Novell 236

Posted by Zonk from the dr.-tux dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has signed a major deal with Novell to begin rolling out their enterprise server and desktop products on government systems. The contract provides unlimited use of Novell products to about 70,000 at HHS, including about 30,000 NIH users. Under the arrangement Novell is providing to HHS 'unlimited access, upgrade protection and technical support' for products, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Open Enterprise Server, Novell Linux Desktop, patch management, and a range of identity-based services for management, integration and security."
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HHS Signs Major Linux Deal With Novell More

HHS Signs Major Linux Deal With Novell

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  • No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RocketRainbow ( 750071 ) <rocketgirl@@@myrealbox...com> on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:13AM (#12713585) Homepage Journal
    Why is Novell so underrated? Their stuff works and it's the only consistently supported software around!

    • Re:No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

      by malraid ( 592373 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:30AM (#12713724)
      underrated? well i would say that novell's business strategy is

      1- Create kick ass top of the line technology
      2- Hide it as best as possible from customers
      3- ????

      Hopefully they're making some changes now. I still stand by my opinion that their directory and desktop management software is by far the best in the industry

      • Re:No surprise (Score:3, Informative)

        by IAmTheDave ( 746256 )
        2- Hide it as best as possible from customers

        YEAH! I just started trolling around Novell's developer websites and they have some really sweet stuff there that I've never heard of! Specifically their open source LDAP implementation in C# is awesome - and compiles in .NET and Mono to boot. Saved me a LOT of work.

        Go Novell!

        • Re:No surprise (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Curunir_wolf ( 588405 )
          Specifically their open source LDAP implementation in C# is awesome

          Agreed. I've been using it for several months now to tie in our ASP.NET apps to eDir for identity management.

          I tried using the microsoft classes they provide for ldap stuff, but it's so damn Active Directory -specific that it's almost useless. Add to that the fact that you can't do things like explicit binds and I would have been rolling my own code without that ldapcsharp component.

          I have found a couple of bugs [novell.com] working with it, b

      • Re:No surprise (Score:5, Interesting)

        by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @10:01AM (#12714014) Homepage Journal
        2- Hide it as best as possible from customers

        Doesn't seem to me that they're hiding anything. They advertise nationally, both in the general media and in the trades,and have been all along. What would you do differently?

        The problem is, the public wasn't buying Novell's message.

        I think during the years of Novell's fall from being the leading network OS vendor, Microsoft had an unbeatable market position: we're thes convenient and safe vendor. Look how easy and spiffy our management GUI is, you can hired trained monkeys to admin your network and save a bundle. And you have to depend on us for everything else anyway, so there's no real risk. People assess risk by the information that is most conveniently at hand, which in this case was everybody else speculating how long it would take Novell to become Micrsoft roadkill. Knowledge of the risks posed by your network being run by trained monkeys driving a Ford Pinto with a glitzy paint job? Well, let's just say experience is the best teacher.

        Novell's market position was a tougher sell: they produced for skilled network admins the equivalent of industrial machine tools for the skilled mechanic. And they were just about as glamorous. Of course, now things are different. If I were runnign Novell's marketing, my message would be the equivalent of saying, we're like your old steady girl friend you left for a hottie who turned out to secretly be a psychotic bitch. And by the way, we've been spending a lot of time in the gym, and your friends have been noticing.
      • 1- Create kick ass top of the line technology
        2- Hide it as best as possible from customers
        3- ????

        Sounds like DEC, in who's case it was
        3 - Get bought out by a PC maker.
      • While Novell's own technology is very good, their biggest problem is that they create absolutely CRAP network clients.

        They've got better at some of it. For instance, the clients no longer take over your machine and are impossible to uninstall without reformatting, but there's still big problems.

        For instance, even with the current client on our systems, if you don't specify a default server, it blue screens your machine. Stupid.

    • Re:No surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:31AM (#12713726) Homepage Journal
      Why is Novell so underrated? Their stuff works and it's the only consistently supported software around!

      Well, simple,really.

      Novell:Network::Apple:Desktop.

      That is to say the solution everybody knows is better, but which can't overcome the inertia of the market. I literally knew Mac/Novell shops in the 1990s who were extremely happy with the choice, but decided to switch to Microsoft all around despite the fact they thought they had both higher productivity and lower TCO under the status quo. Talk about a Microsoft Tax!. They felt, however, Microsoft was an unstoppable juggernaut that would in the next several years obliterate Apple and Novell.

      Well, guess, what? It didn't happen.

      There's one B-school paradigm that looms large in people's minds, that needs to be rebutted; it's basically the paradigm for making decisions to go with inferior products: The VHS/Beta scenario. Superior quality has almost become a stigma.

      So, for extra credit, show this:

      not(Novell:Microsoft::Beta:VHS)

      • Extra credit response (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dodongo ( 412749 )
        Novell isn't pursuing distribution of F/OSS as a patentable revenue stream. Sony was out to do their thing with Betamax both because it was a better product, but more crucially, it wasn't interoperable with other systems. If you bought Betamax anything, that money went to Sony and locked others out of the market.

        Novell, by contrast, is not just bound to a revenue stream solely in product sales. They can offer services above and beyond the software box that is truly what makes this profitable, as support
      • Well I could say Beta, tape less then a movie, VHS tape a full movie.

        Microsoft, unified directory less then Fortune 500 company, Novell Unified Directory big enough.

        PS multiple masters are not unified.

        Later Beta tapes fixed this, but it was too late, the reputation was there. MS exists on closed "standards" and VHS thrived due to an open standard.
    • because the old Novell network solution were hell.

    • Yeah, I got to hand it to Novell. Unlike some tech companies, they noticed that people were moving away from core product (NetWare) quickly enough to change their business plan and save their company from becoming a technolgical has been.

      I hope that someone at Sun is taking notes.
    • Because their Desktop Operating System (NLD) can't easily be configured to authenticate to:

      -Their own Directory Server
      -The competition's Directory Server (AD)
      ?

      Other competitors can at least do the 2nd ...

    • Re:No surprise (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dsginter ( 104154 )
      Why is Novell so underrated?

      They're not. At least where I am from (metro Dee-troit), a significant portion of job listings have Novell at the top.

      As a side note, we wouldn't have Active Directory if it weren't for Novell coming up with something great for MS to copy. I'd really like to see IBM scoop Novell up and go up against MS again.
    • As a long time system programmer/administrator there are two things that have always bugged me about Novell. One, the network file system they use is antique. It has no global namespace, no kerberos authorization, doesn't use an ACL model, doesn't support symlinks, etc. Second, while the directory service might be cool, it isn't useful for anything beyond Novell's own products. There are very few client applications that are written for NDS. You can see NDS as an LDAP server, but if you do that then wh

      • Re:Why is Novell being pushed? (Score:4, Informative)

        by PDXNerd ( 654900 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @12:07PM (#12715505)
        Err, this is FUD I believe. The network file system they use? Which filesystem would this be - nfs? smb? or are you talking about the older netware stuff? Modern Netware and SLES are as flexible network-wise as any other OS I've used. NDS as an LDAP server - integrated eDirectory configuration tools (i.e. ConsoleOne) that allow you to enumerate your authentication server out as an LDAP tree for legacy programs. Not every OS has support for eDirectory - or ActiveDirectory - but eDirectory is damn near standards compliant for LDAP. Good luck acheiving this with ADS. Pre-written GUI tools? I don't have words for the lunacy of this statement. EVERY OS IN THE WORLD SHIPS WITH PRE-WRITTEN GUI TOOLS. Novell's own scripting language does suck. But since Netware 6 (at least) they've been shipping Perl. Now I know perl is not flexible or easy to use.. wait.. I'll just shutup now.
      • First of all, Novell is the company name. "Novell" doesn't have a network file system, NetWare does.

        One, the network file system they use is antique. It has no global namespace, no kerberos authorization, doesn't use an ACL model, doesn't support symlinks, etc.

        It sounds like you're confusing the filesystem with the network file system. TFS (the "Traditional File System" is fairly old, but also quite secure when security is implemented properly.

        FAT/FAT32/NTFS are not Network File Systems; they are fil

  • I wonder.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Crimson Dragon ( 809806 ) * on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:14AM (#12713592) Homepage

    When it comes to large institutions and licensing with Linux vendors, a number of important questions are raised.

    1. Is it profitable?
      While it can be said that the costs of usage in the corporate workplace of Linux is less than other environments, it can also be said the support costs are higher. The relevant quote in this case: "unlimited access, upgrade protection and technical support". While seemingly a good thing for bolstering Linux in this market, who knows in the end if that will cost Novell more than they can handle, and thereby discourage other vendors in this market from the kind of aggressive marketing they should be engaging in if they wish to expand.
    2. The way in which this agreement is done could harm Linux in this environment overall.
      According to this article, HHS and NIH don't have to migrate from other platforms. While the kneejerk reaction could be "hooray, choice!", a different reaction could be that these products aren't getting a truly fair test in this market, that is to say, showing its robustness or lack thereof in the primary operating market. Time will tell, I suppose.
    Just some thoughts.... I could be wrong.

    • Re:I wonder.... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by malkavian ( 9512 )
      I see the traditionaly business practice of a Loss Leader.
      In the long term, this will likely cost Novell more than they got.
      However, to get a good track record in a market sector, you first need to get into that sector.
      Novell seem to be doing this with a high profile agency, whose requirements (government agencies don't usually have the latest and greatest stuff unless forced to by external pressure, such as MS upgrade paths) are likely to be reasonably mild.

      That way, they get PR, and visibility in the sec
      • I had this thought right after I posted, however the inroads they are making into that sector could be less than they envision. It is speculative business to gauge market penetration before ubiquity.
        • Gubmint acquisition is increasingly based on proven performance. This established a track record.
          Considering some of the heavy brains Novell has added to its roster lately (R. Love), this should be very interesting, and lead to some sweating in Washinton State...
    • On the other hand, if you're looking to deploy a Linux box (which is happening a lot in the government), and there's "free" (as in, already paid for by another division) support for SUSE, that makes the distro choice very easy, and makes the management justification part easy as well.

      Mostly, I think this will have the effect of slowly unifying the distro choice at HHS & NIH to SUSE. Linux is already happenning, this just makes the deployment more orderly.
    • Is it profitable?
      While it can be said that the costs of usage in the corporate workplace of Linux is less than other environments, it can also be said the support costs are higher. The relevant quote in this case: "unlimited access, upgrade protection and technical support". While seemingly a good thing for bolstering Linux in this market, who knows in the end if that will cost Novell more than they can handle, and thereby discourage other vendors in this market from the kind of aggressive marketing they sh
    • The way in which this agreement is done could harm Linux in this environment overall.
      According to this article, HHS and NIH don't have to migrate from other platforms. While the kneejerk reaction could be "hooray, choice!", a different reaction could be that these products aren't getting a truly fair test in this market, that is to say, showing its robustness or lack thereof in the primary operating market. Time will tell, I suppose.

      What would you call a truly fair test in the market? Lets look at the ma
    • Seriously, why does everyone hear linux and think "higher support costs"?

      Have you used a linux desktop lately?

  • Lesser of many evils (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fruitbane ( 454488 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:14AM (#12713599)
    In my experience with Novell eDirectory and Microsoft ADS, it's a good thing they chose Novell, particularly for an operation of their size. This is also good news for Novell. Here's hoping Novell can make this all work well enough that nobody's left gun-shy afterwards.
    • Novell's eDirectory is far and away the easiest DS to manage. I wonder if Novell's Linux push with its excellent directory and print services will give people like me who adminned Netware a new chance in the industry.
  • Can you develop with Novell Desktop Linux?

    I've always liked the brand.
    • Can you develop with Novell Desktop Linux?

      We're testing that now.

      As I write I am also using VNC to connect remotely to SUSE running as a Server, using the KDE 3.2 desktop, and developing/compiling QT3 applications on it. I also use KDevelop on that server. One app had a tab frame with four tabs and the second tab had over 60 textboxes. The app was connected to a PostgreSQL 7.4 database, also on the same server, as a stand in for an Oracle database, since PostgreSQL syntax is so similar to Oracle's. T

  • Technical support boundaries (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:17AM (#12713618) Homepage Journal
    Certainly not saying this isn't a bad thing (its damn good tbh), but regarding technical support.

    How often has anyone actually needed technical support for the OS?
    Is the knowledge thats its there just a comforter to PHBs, or do people routinely call these big vendors for support, and if so, what level? (

    "my icons have all moved around" vs "something on my cpu appears to allow locked files to be overwritten under these conditions" ?

    • The huge corps tend to get some kind of support arrangement included in their licencing which I guess helps as a fallback and keeps costs fixed.

      Without that, Novell charge per-incident which my boss had to use in my last job. It's expensive, about $500 per incident iirc, although with a hefty discount if you're a CNE as you'll need less hand-holding. However, that fee gets you as much support as is needed to fix a problem. We had a load of strange errors in NDS (caused by some very slow/overloaded WAN link

  • Novell seems to be coming back... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    from the brink. They were sooo circling the drain as a company until the got involved with Linux. It's nice to see them back in the saddle. I've always been of the opinion that Novell makes some of the finest software in the world. I mean, please... nothing was/is better than NDS. Full stop. Borderware is a damn fine piece of security software. Netware was/is bulletproof.

    Kudos to Novell's management for seeing the light.
    • Before you give them too much credit, realize that this is actually the SECOND time they've got involved with GNU/Linux. The first time, resulted in Ray Noorda getting kicked out of Novell and his starting of a company called Caldera. The same Caldera who went and purchased SCO and then changed their name to The SCO Group.

      I do agree that Novell seems to be back ontrack with how to attack Microsoft and improve customer satisfaction. But the way they finally got here would make a good coffee table book.

      LoB
  • Gogo Novell!

    Now if we could just get the DHS to run it, we'd be even MORE secure...

    But the best part? It'd REALLY piss Billy Gates off .. and that (as Martha says) would be a GOOD THING.

  • I work at HHS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ranhert ( 877588 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:23AM (#12713664)
    Kind of interesting. I work at HHS in Rockville, the second largest HHS building. We were running Novell for a long time but 2 months ago switched to Microsoft ADS. I wonder if this means we will be going back? If so, somebody is getting canned because most of the servers were down for long periods of time during the switch accumulating quite a bit of lost time and resources.
    • Interesting.. I think I work in that same building(HRSA building?). If so - small world.

    • (and still live up the block from your office, near Whole Foods)

      I wouldn't be surprised if this is fallout from the wonderful UFMS implementation that went live in April. . . which immediately failed going live, thus reverting to their legacy system again.

      The big question I'd have is Oracle Applications support on the Novell desktop. . . admittedly I have very little experience with any non-windows based Apps client, but I do know I must use IE in order to run it on my own Windows box.

  • I don't know about anyone else, but every time i hear news like this, i get goosebumps. I admit, i wasn't a big fan of Novell a few years ago, and was really worried when they bought out SUSE, but they have pretty much stuck to their guns and have contributed a lot to the world of Linux. They're really helping to give Linux a good name, and getting the MS-only sys admins to take notice. A lot of system admins and 'decision' makers that I know have "heard" of Linux but doesn't think it's secure/stable/matu

  • GNU/HHS (Score:5, Funny)

    by rice_burners_suck ( 243660 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:33AM (#12713742)
    The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...

    No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. It's the GNU/US Department of Health and Human Services (GNU/HHS). I'm going to report this to the Free Software Foundation's Department of Making Sure GNU Appears Anywhere GNU/Linux is Used (GNU/RMS).

    • People like you keep making fun of GNU for trying to get their name and contributions recognized. But companies like Microsoft, Apple, Sun, and others put billions into marketing, trademark enforcement, and other activities to make people aware of their brand.

      Like it or not, having a recognizable "brand" is important even for open source projects: it helps their long-term survival and attracts contributions. People do need to remember that "Linux" really is a combination of the Linux kernel and a lot of
      • one thing i'd like to do at some point is go through a typical "GNU/linux" install and sort the packages into source categories maybe something like:

        linux: for the linux kernel itself and directly related stuff like util-linux and module-init-tools

        GNU: for stuff from the gnu project

        BSD: for stuff from the bsds

        OTHER: for everything else

        then we could do some totals by both package count and total size and see how much of a distribution really is gnu

        • Re:get over it (Score:3, Insightful)

          by cahiha ( 873942 )
          It's been done for Linux and was reported here on Slashdot. As I recall, GNU was the biggest component in terms of LOC, even bigger than the kernel.

          More importantly, however, GNU is essential: without the GNU compiler and the GNU command line utilities, Linux wouldn't run; there simply are no substitutes.
          • 1: was GNU just the biggest single contributer or was it bigger than everything else put together?
            2: was this a minimal command line only install or was it a full desktop system
            3: do you have a link to this study?
            4: iirc the bsds have versions of most command line tools and there are other C compilers and standard C library implementations around as free software. Sure it would be a pain to try and build a linux system with no gnu stuff because everything is set up for building with it but calling the gnu s
          • > More importantly, however, GNU is essential: without the GNU compiler
            > and the GNU command line utilities, Linux wouldn't run; there simply
            > are no substitutes.

            Riight. Please put down the crackpipe and slowly walk away from it.

            BSD has a fully functioning userland. They currently use GCC & Friends for the build chain but lets face it, GCC hasn't been a FSF project in years. Most GCC development has been at Cygnus -> RedHat. And there ARE alternate C compilers around should the need ev
            • BSD has a fully functioning userland.

              Yes, but lots of non-GNU stuff in Linux distributions relies on GNU specific features; if you replaced them with BSD tools, things would break everywhere.

              And as someone with more than a decade of BSD system management experience and about a decade of Linux under my belt, I can assure you: there is no way I'm ever going to go back to a BSD userland--it is just too painful.

              (If it were really a FSF/GNU project there wouldn't even be TALK of using Mono or Java.)

              I have

  • Novell to make Linux mature (Score:5, Funny)

    by shane2uunet ( 705294 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:34AM (#12713759) Homepage
    I remember a /. article a few years back stating that Novell was going to help Linux step into a mature contender in the Enterprise sphere. I laughed, because I viewed Novell as a has been, but now I have to eat my hat (it's red).

  • This is Good News... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pschmied ( 5648 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:36AM (#12713785) Homepage
    ...for contractors such as myself whose clients include big civilian federal agencies.

    I try to pitch open technologies when I can, but there is historical bias against open platforms like Linux. The more announcements like this happen, the easier it becomes to make a case for Linux/BSD on the server, and maybe some day on the desktop. I suspect that as a few of the more progressive agencies adopt Linux, the more conservative ones will follow.

    Protecting Windows against the malware of the week in a big enterprise is a tough job. Enterprise system management is also a tough job without an army of foot soldiers who scurry around fixing breakages in software distribution system endpoints.

    Linux/BSD starts looking pretty good when you start talking tens of thousands of machines to manage...

    -Peter

  • Real life "Dilbert" quotes from Microsoft (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:36AM (#12713788)
    1. As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks. (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, WA.)

    10. We recently received a memo from senior management saying: ''This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the subject mentioned above.'' (Microsoft, Legal Affairs Division)

    • "1. As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks. (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, WA.)"

      I actually understand this one. You see, they came up with the idea, which will take two weeks to implement. (And I'd like to see them take 35,000 pictures "on Wednesday"...)

      However, they can't actually implement it until Bill says yes

  • The Bat Phone Rings in Redmond (Score:3, Funny)

    by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:46AM (#12713883) Homepage
    Quick, Steve, to the bat jet! Time for another dose of the monkey dancing CEO for those rubes in DC!
    • If *I* was one of those "rubes in DC", the sight of Ballmer doing his monkey-dance would (a) have me spewing up my last five meals (b) calling back Novell to help me evict every last byte of MS code as quickly as possible. Any company with *that* for a CEO couldn't *possibly* be taken seriously.

  • What about the Novell Client (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @09:58AM (#12713987)
    I wonder whether this will make Novell release a Novell Client for Linux which is as functional as its Windows counterpart.

    This is one major problem I see with Novell and it also paints a bad picture. Why won't Novell do this noble thing?

    • I would recommend not using the Novell Client at all anymore on Windows machine. Use CIFS on the server for file access and utilize Zenworks with a middle tier server for login. Printing through iPrint and user's home directory should be replaced by iFolder.

      About the only thing you really lose in that situation from a user perspective are the login scripts. You can use NAL apps to handle pretty much what most people are using login scripts for.

  • People have been begging "government" to save our tax dollars by going with something other than Microsoft such as Linux. I haven't read the article yet so forgive me and I didn't see where any particular savings was going to happen, but it will show how credible Linux (+Novell services) is on a large scale deployment like this. Will this be the first? No. But I can't think of too many other examples off hand while I'm sure there must be.

    If this suffers from big problems, we'll hear about it for a long

  • Vendor Unlock (Score:4, Informative)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Friday June 03, 2005 @10:23AM (#12714212) Homepage Journal
    "An NIH source says there are no plans to "unseat" Microsoft products, which are widely used throughout HHS."

    Microsoft's got a huge lock on groupware, with Outlook/Exchange locking seats to Microsoft with each other's installation, and locking each to Windows (and vice versa) with each installation of Microsoft's OS.

    Novell sells groupware that competes directly with Exchange. They even provide code, sales and frontline support services to Netline's Open-Xchange [open-xchange.org], the open source project upon which much of their high-end groupware is based. O-X connects transparently to Outlook, and natively to Evolution, Netscape, and other open source clients that run on SuSE Linux, which Novell supports to the same extent. And O-X is middleware that connnects to servers like Postgres, Tomcat, postfix, OpenLDAP (all of which are open source, or have swap-in replacement open source alternatives). O-X interoperates with all these apps via standard protocols and data formats, including Outlook, so all the other software we add to the system that uses those standards continues to work.

    Novell's arrangement puts Linux into a giant organization, backed by serious support and development. It's the thin edge of a wedge backed by other apps that can further displace Microsoft's hegemony there. Just like all the Linux/Apache servers that mushroomed everywhere in the last 5 years, including HHS no doubt, without a plan, but which reduced the IIS grip on the market to an also-ran. HHS runs its webserver on Windows/IIS [netcraft.com] today - after this Novell contract is operational, that will probably change. How long after that will Exchange go the way of IIS? And with IT able to just call Novell for support, and Novell sales calling to sell their O-X line, how long will it take for wily HHS geeks to quietly replace Exchange without the suits even noticing? Then, once Novell and Netline have feedback from a huge paying enterprise customer like HHS, and all their vast array of extranet partners, how long before no one notices that the plug has been pulled on IIS for good, except Microsoft and Novell?
  • HHS during the first GWB administration spent a ton of cash and time to pull everyone into the Active Directory structure. As late as 2003, each individual institute or center in NIH was able to run their own email on whatever system they pleased.

    Then the AD juggernaut came in, along with other IT mandates such as moving database services to Oracle, regardless of what you were using before (which was one of those "unfunded mandate" type of things).

    HHS, and NIH in particular, are caught up in a cost cu

  • This HHS contract could be a big shot in the arm to Evolution and Evolution development, if folks at NIH start using the Novell Linux Desktop.

    This NIH support page [nih.gov] shows they're definately using Outlook on Win2k. Perhaps they're going to opt going to Suse/OpenExchange/NLD instead of the XP/2k3 upgrade?

    I'd be interested to see which departments/agencies under NIH opt to go with SuSe/OpenExchange first and why, besides the obvious licensing savings.

  • This is an odd nit-pick, and it might just be a region dependent (I'm in Washington) thing, but I have worked for the DHHS (Specifically the DDD), and employee or otherwise, EVERYONE I know says DHHS not HHS, and It's abbreviated DHHS in all the material I had for the job. The Website is even www.dhhs.gov

    Do people in other parts of the country refer to the "OD", "HS", "OE" Or the friggen' "OT"? Because everyone I know says DOD (Department of Defense), DHS (Department of Homeland Security), DOE (Department

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