Vmware And novel signed strategic partnership.
In fact VMware singes partnership with NOVELL concerning the SLES distribution. With your purchase of VMware vSphere, you'll be able to get a subscription to SUSE Linux, the updates etc…as part of the vSphere product. VMware is able to distribute SUSE Linux software inside appliances or as part of vSphere deals.
Additionaly you can also purchase the full support from Novell itself providing the additional level of support.
Customers who want to deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware® in VMware vSphere™ virtual machines will be entitled to receive a subscription to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server that includes patches and updates as part of their newly purchased qualifying VMware vSphere license and Support and Subscription.
See more here…
Then on the Wikipedia i found a detailed informations what SUSE Entreprise linux is:
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for servers, mainframes, and workstations but can be installed on desktop computers for testing as well. New major versions are released at an interval of 24–36 months, while minor versions (called service packs) are released every 9–12 months. SUSE Linux Enterprise products, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, receive much more intense testing than the openSUSE community product, with the intention that only mature, stable versions of the included components will make it through to the released enterprise product.
Source: VMware
