The Waltham, Massachusetts-based software vendor previewed Open Workgroup Suite at its BrainShare user conference in March, stating that it would become the core brand via which the company’s collaboration server, systems management suite, Linux desktop, and the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, will be taken to market.

The suite contains Novell Open Enterprise Server (with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), GroupWise, ZENworks, the Novell Linux Desktop, and OpenOffice.org. A cross-platform version is also available without the Linux elements for deployment on Windows.

The product is priced to encourage migration to Linux, with the Linux version costing $80 per year on a subscription basis or $110 per device/user for a perpetual license with $75 per device/user for maintenance. The cross-platform version of the suite is $150 per user/device for a perpetual license with $106 per device/user for maintenance.

The product also acts as the replacement for the NetWare-based Novell Small Business Suite and the Novell Linux Small Business Suite, which was launched in March 2005 and bundles SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Linux Desktop, GroupWise, eDirectory, and iManager products in a single package.