The IBM/Novell blade subscription deal

IBM and Novell Announce First Blade Chassis Subscription for Linux

Novell SUSE Linux Subscription for BladeCenter Chassis Offers IBM Customers 
New Simplified Linux Licensing

Armonk, NY, and Waltham, Mass., October 12, 2005 - IBM and Novell today
announced a new single subscription option for the IBM BladeCenter chassis
that will provide customers with increased flexibility and choice, making it
easy to buy and administer subscriptions to Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server based on their individual needs.  This single subscription will cover
all blades within the BladeCenter chassis, regardless of CPU type or
quantity, and aims to help lower the cost and complexity of procuring and
licensing Linux for blade server environments. 

This new chassis subscription model will help customers maintain control
over the cost of computing by potentially reducing subscription
administration requirements and the need for separate subscriptions on each
blade server.  By creating a simple-to-administer and flexible environment,
users will be able to configure, re-provision and expand on demand within an
IBM BladeCenter chassis with up to 14 blade servers without having to
purchase additional subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Customers can mix-and-match any number of blade servers with Intel(r),
AMD(r) and Power-based CPUs in a single chassis with this single
subscription. This subscription model will help customers quickly and
efficiently implement scalable, multi-tier, and heterogeneous Linux
workloads.

"As a key business partner of both IBM and Novell, rs-unix is very pleased
to see the leaders in Linux offer customers an easy and cost-effective way
to subscribe to Linux on the IBM BladeCenter platform," said Jeff Medeiros,
CEO of rs-unix. "Our primary goal is to provide solutions to solve our
customers' business problems, and this combination will allow us to more
easily achieve that goal."

Recent second quarter 2005 market share results show that IBM BladeCenter
has been the leading blade server in the industry for eight successive
quarters.*  IBM was also number one in overall Linux-based server revenue
worldwide in the second quarter of 2005.**  Unlike competitive offerings
which bundle multiple traditional server subscriptions and tie them to
chassis orders, IBM's BladeCenter chassis subscription is a complete chassis
subscription and will help further reduce the cost and complexity of
implementing Linux based solutions and workloads. Depending on the blade
configuration, customers could see reductions in their subscription costs of
up to $17,000. 

"From the inception of IBM's BladeCenter offering, IBM has worked with
industry partners to deliver the industries most open, flexible blade server
platform to meet the dynamic business needs of our customers," said Doug
Balog, vice president and business line executive, IBM BladeCenter. "With
this new BladeCenter chassis subscription, we are enabling customers to
simply and flexibly manage their IT infrastructure at potentially reduced
overall cost."

"Our work with IBM aligns with the current industry trend to simplify data
centers and overall infrastructure management," said Ron Hovsepian, Novell
executive vice president and president, global field operations.  "Unlike
competitive offerings which simply bundle existing server subscriptions, the
new Novell(r) and IBM subscription model offers advantages for heterogeneous
environments and virtualization needs allowing customers to customize their
data centers while potentially lowering the system's total cost of
ownership." 

IBM and Novell are also working together on the formation of Blade.org, a
planned collaborative organization aimed at spurring solution development
and innovation around IBM BladeCenter.   Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server is the first Linux to support all IBM hardware platforms, including
the first on IBM POWER and IBM zSeries.

Pricing and Availability
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for IBM BladeCenter(r) chassis offerings
provide customers with the ability to purchase a single SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 9 offering and deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 on
any IBM BladeCenter server configured within a BladeCenter chassis,
including Intel x86-based, EM64T-based, AMD64-based, or POWER-based IBM
BladeCenter servers, whether 2 or 4-socket servers.  This new pricing model
starts at $2792, per annual Novell upgrade protection subscription and will
be available in October 2005.  For more information, visit
http://www.novell.com/bladecenter <http://www.novell.com/bladecenter>> .

About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across
IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services,
solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take
full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM,
visit www.ibm.com <http://www.ibm.com>> .

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers Software for the Open Enterprise(tm).
With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers
manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by
leveraging best-of-breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years
of experience, Novell's 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers
around the world help customers gain control over their IT operating
environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found
at http://www.novell.com <http://www.novell.com>> .

*IDC Quarterly Server Report, August 2005
** Gartner Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, August 2005

Novell is a registered trademark, and SUSE and Software for the Open
Enterprise are trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other
countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other
third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.