PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second-largest automobile manufacturer in Europe, and Novell just signed a multiyear contract allowing the deployment of up to 20,000 Linux* desktops plus 2,500 Linux servers from Novell.

“We found SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to be well supported and extremely user friendly,” said an IT representative for PSA Peugeot Citroen. “Novell’s commitment to open source and close collaboration with leading hardware and application vendors to ensure the support of our IT requirements were key factors in our choice. In addition, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop integrates seamlessly in our Windows-based infrastructure.”

Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell, said, “PSA Peugeot Citroen has discovered the value a market-ready Linux platform can bring to their business, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is the market’s only enterprise-class Linux desktop ready for routine business use. We are pleased to provide a compelling alternative to PSA Peugeot Citroen’s current proprietary desktop platform and help the organization reduce costs while advancing its next-generation IT architecture.”

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop delivers ease of use at lower hardware cost and many innovative features including three-dimensional desktop graphics, integrated search and a fully compatible office productivity suite through the Novell(R) edition of OpenOffice.org 2, all at a small fraction of the price of the proprietary operating system and office suite alternatives. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is suited for complete desktop replacements, retail point of service solutions, thin-client deployments and engineering workstations. For more information on SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell, visit [ http://www.novell.com/linux. ]http://www.novell.com/linux