Novell Inc.'s latest pitch to lure Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) customers to migrate to Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise appears to be a tough sell.

Last week, in a deal similar to bank enticements that target new checking account customers, Waltham, Mass.-based Novell offered existing Red Hat customers two years of Red Hat support and updates with every three-year premium SUSE Linux Enterprise subscription, at no extra charge. The total cost is $3,748 per server, compared with $3,507 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and $6,747 for RHEL's Advanced Platform including clusters and virtualization.

From RHEL to SUSE Linux? No way!

But, for a variety of reasons that include from the troubled economy to the effort involved in switching platforms, Red Hat customers we contacted said they were unlikely to take the bait.

The most interested of the four was Mark St. Onge. As an enterprise systems architect at India-based HCL Technologies, St. Onge is evaluating SUSE for a large Massachusetts company with a large Red Hat installation. St. Onge said Novell's promotion incentive was "huge." and its product roadmap is "great." But his client faces layoffs and would be unlikely to spend the money to make a change in the current fiscal climate, St. Onge said.

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