WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novell
today announced the winners of its First Annual 'Dister' Awards,
handing out two $10,000 grand prizes
to software companies Radical Breeze and Anderware. The Dister
Awards celebrates innovators and inventors who build Linux-based
software appliances using the award-winning SUSE Studio™ from
Novell.
A panel of five independent judges awarded Radical Breeze, of
Everett, Wash., the top honors in
the "Commercial" category for its Illumination Software Creation
Station, a self-contained solution that allows users to visually
design their own software applications with no programming
experience required and no need for set up. Anderware, a software
company from Sweden, won in the
"Community" category for its Hypergrid to Go appliance, which
allows users to easily set up an extension to the OpenSim platform
to create a multi-user 3D world similar to Second Life.
The "Commercial" category features appliances that include
commercial, proprietary components or applications. The "Community"
category consists of appliances created from components of
openSUSE®, SUSE® Linux Enterprise, the openSUSE Build Service and
other open source components that are freely available. Entrants
created appliances and posted their entries to SUSE Gallery, an
online showcase where developers can publish their appliances and
end users can download them at no cost.
In addition to the top winners, the contest recognized a pair of
appliances for honorable mentions - the EasySpooler Appliance by
ROC Software's Paul Scripko, in the
"Commercial" category, and the BrowserBox appliance by Opera
Software's Jacob Rask was honored in
the "Community" category. The contest also handed out a "Spirit
Award" – recognizing a creative and innovative use of SUSE Studio
that is useful to the community at large – to Gourav Shah of Efficient Frontier in
India for his FreeSWITCHBOX
appliance.
The Disters were selected by a panel of leading Linux and open
source luminaries, including Jason
Brooks, eWeek Labs editor in chief; Sean Michael Kerner, senior editor at
InternetNews.com; Jos Poortvliet, openSUSE community
manager; Markus Rex, senior vice
president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions at Novell;
and Jim Zemlin, executive director
of the Linux Foundation.
Since July 2009 and the launch of
the SUSE Appliance Program, more than 585,000 Linux appliances have
been built using SUSE Studio, the industry's most successful
web-based appliance creation tool with more than 95,000 registered
users worldwide. SUSE Gallery serves as a centralized storefront
where SUSE Studio users can browse and access appliances. Only SUSE
Gallery offers software developers this opportunity to publish and
promote their software appliances to millions of potential
users.
The winners of the First Annual 'Dister' Awards are being
honored during a virtual event on Facebook at 12:00 noon EST on Wednesday,
Dec. 15. To learn more about the Dister Awards, visit
www.novell.com/thedisters. For more information about
the SUSE Appliance Program, visit
www.novell.com/appliances.
Supporting Quotes
"It is incredibly exciting to have Illumination Software
Creation Station chosen as a winner for the Disters," said Bryan
Lunduke, president of Radical Breeze. "Being able to provide a
turn-key solution for anyone to test drive and use our
software, using SUSE Studio and SUSE Gallery, has proven to be a
major benefit to our business."
"This is a true honor for Hypergrid to Go," added Tommy Anderberg of Anderware. "Using SUSE Studio
and SUSE Gallery, we were able to create a much easier way to enter
the OpenSim/Hypergrid environment and find content. We hope this
will lower the barrier to entry for everybody interested in the
nascent 3D web."
"The quality of submissions in the Dister Awards showcases how
far software appliances have advanced in the marketplace," said
Markus Rex, senior vice president
and general manager of Open Platform Solutions at Novell.
"Companies are generating significant value from our SUSE Appliance
Program, getting to market quickly and easily with fully-supported
software and virtual appliances, while promoting their offerings
through SUSE Gallery. The financial prizes awarded through the
contest should help the winners advance their appliance adoption
even faster."
"The Dister Contest submissions really represent the power of
Linux and open source software to spur innovation and push the
envelope on what software appliances can do," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux
Foundation. "Congratulations to the winners and thanks to Novell
for hosting this important contest."
About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in intelligent workload
management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage
computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing
environments. We help customers reduce the cost, complexity and
risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for
identity and security, systems management, collaboration and
Linux-based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software
and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT
environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For
more information, visit www.novell.com.
Copyright © 2010 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Novell,
the Novell logo, the N logo, openSUSE, and SUSE are registered
trademarks and SUSE Studio is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the
United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE Novell, Inc.