Expected later this year, Novell will release an update to the Open Enterprise Server 2 product. Targeted for a 4Q release with a public beta this summer, Novell plans to add support for 64-bit eDirectory, improved migration tools, and Domain Services for Windows -- a feature that was originally slated for the OES2 release, but was pulled for quality reasons.

In the Monday BrainShare keynote (the video of the keynote is here) Novell talked about its new strategic plan, under the code name Fassa. Dr. Jeff Jaffe talked about how Novell wants to drive innovation in enterprise computing, helping companies become "agile" and able to adapt to today's ever-changing business needs. Novell won't be able to execute on this vision without help from the open source community and its partners.

Novell's BrainShare is just days away. A time when the Novell faithful flock to Salt Lake City to see what Novell has been up to in the past year -- and to see what future promises are made. This year the focus will again be on Linux from the desktop to the enterprise data center. Virtualization, identity management, and security also are slated as big topics -- based on the number of class sessions listed in their session catalog.