Using the open source Spacewalk Project technology developed by its rival Linux vendor Red Hat, Novell has come up with a Linux system management solution named SUSE Linux. This solution allows users to update both SUSE Linux Enterprises Server (SLES) and Red Hat Enterprises Linux (RHES) installations.
SUSE Linux is compatible with all three major Linux systems: Spacewalk, RHES and SLES. The Novell team has made it easier to use Spacewalk in an SLES environment by using the RHN satellite code that Red Hat open sourced in 2008. Novell achieved this by making the code compatible with Zypp and AutoYast-the languages used by SUSE Linux.
SUSE Linux is an open source tool now and Red Hat users can easily migrate to it, but if you want new patches and feeds from Novell, you have to pay for them.
