Open Enterprise Server

Open Enterprise Server (OES) is a server operating system published by Novell in March 2005 to succeed their NetWare product.
Unlike NetWare, Novell OES is a Linux distribution—specifically, one based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The first major release of Open Enterprise Server (OES 1) could run either with a Linux kernel (with a NetWare compatibility layer) or Novell's NetWare kernel (with a Linux compatibility layer). Novell discontinued the NetWare kernel prior to the release of OES 2, but NetWare 6.5 SP7, and later SP8 can run as a paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor (Officially supported until 7 March 2012, Novell self-supported until 7 March 2015).
OES 1 and OES 2.
Novell released OES 1, the first version of OES, on 25 March 2005. Since some users wanted backward compatibility with NetWare, Novell offered two installation options: OES-NetWare and OES-Linux. These are two different operating systems with different kernels and different userlands.
OES-NetWare is NetWare v6.5 equipped with NetWare Loadable Modules for various Novell services (such as NetWare Core Protocol, Novell eDirectory, Novell Storage Services, and iPrint) and open-source software (such as OpenSSH, Apache Tomcat, and the Apache HTTP Server).
OES-Linux is based on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) with added NetWare services ported to the Linux kernel: e.g. the NetWare Core Protocol, Novell eDirectory, Novell Storage Services, and iPrint.
Novell released OES 2, the second version of OES, on 12 October 2007, it was the first SLES-Linux-kernel-only OES, but it retained the OES-NetWare operating system option, as NetWare 6.5 SP7, can run as a paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor. The SLES base of the OES 2 was updated to SLES 10 SP1.
Features introduced in OES 2 include:
See also (based on different OES editions):
OES 11.
OES 11 was released on 12 December 2011 based on SLES 11 SP1 64-bit (From OES 2 no NetWare kernel any more). This is the first version of OES to be 64-bit (x86_64) only. NetWare 6.5 SP8 was still possible to run as a 32-bit only paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor.
Novell released a service pack, OES 11 SP1, on 28 August 2012.
Novell released a service pack, OES 11 SP2, on 28 January 2014.
Novell released a service pack, OES 11 SP3, on 26 July 2016.
Marketing.
Vendor motivation.
Novell executives expect that porting these services to an OS with growing popularity and better support from hardware and software vendors will give Novell a good opportunity to improve its business results.
OES is Novell's reaction to two things:
License costs.
Licensing costs are identical regardless of the platform, and the platforms may be mixed under the same license. As with Novell's other products, OES is licensed per user seat, without regard to the number of servers. Pricing is typically not altered by physical CPUs or the use of hardware virtualization technologies (e.g. VMware, Xen). NetWare and OES both include two-node licenses for Novell Cluster Services, allowing basic clustered environments to be created without additional licensing charges.
In comparison, Microsoft Windows charges per server and per client, with additional charges for larger SMP support and for clustering.