Well, it turns out that Novell is indeed working on a thin client solution, and based on my conversation today with Nat Friedman, it is definately based on LTSP.
What this means is that Novell has recognized the value that LTSP brings to the market, and that rather than re-invent the wheel, they want to help us prepare LTSP for the enterprise.
Nat says that they want to help with features such as security and local device support. And, he assured me that they want to work with us, to make sure that it all works smoothly and it will be done in an open way.
Initially, I didn't know how I should react to this. As the day went on, I had a concern that maybe Novell would attempt to take control of the project. I suppose that's a natural reaction.
After talking with Nat, a couple of Novell engineers, a few people who were at the Novell dog-n-pony show on tuesday, and some friends, my attitude is that of pride. Pride in the fact that what we have been working on for the past 5 years or so has been recognized by one of the largest software companies in the world and they see potential in what we have created. I for one, am impressed by what Novell is doing with Ximian and SUSE.
LTSP is NOT what I do for a living. It's my hobby and my passion. It just amazes me that a bunch of people can get together in their spare time and create something that can have such an impact on the world.
Right now, there are schools all over the world using LTSP to deliver computing to children who would otherwise not have it. There are people in Brazil, some of whom are homeless, without a street address, but they have an email address, because LTSP was used by the government in what is called the 'Telecentros'.
There are small companies popping up all over the world, by people who believe they can make an honest living by deploying Linux and LTSP based solutions in schools and libraries, government agencies and businesses, such as doctors and lawyers and architects and hardware stores and heck, the list goes on and on.
To me, that is so cool.
At this point, I'm very interested in what Novell can offer to our little project. At the very least, they are helping to legitimize it.
Anyway, back to work. LTSP-4.1 isn't gonna finish itself :)
Jim McQuillan
May 6, 2004