Other Novell software packages of interest include ZENworks, a collection of asset management software, as well as the business service management software that Novell , said Charles King, president and principal analyst of the Pund-IT analysis firm.

Fitting this new software in Attachmate's existing line will be a challenge. and currently owned by an investment group, Attachmate itself first specialized in terminal software, which allowed for remote access to mainframes. In 2006, it purchased NetIQ, a provider of network management software.

Up until now, there hasn't been any cross-pollination among the various product lines that Attachmate oversees, said Jonathan Penn, a vice president for Forrester. "You have to expect some integration between NetIQ and Novell," he said.

It remains to be seen what role Novell's Linux distribution, SUSE Linux, will play. While Novell has marketed SUSE to , the OS has trailed behind Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Canonical's Ubuntu in terms of enterprise adoption.

Nonetheless, in terms of Novell's portfolio, "the SUSE stuff stands on its own," King said. "The vendors that are active in Linux don't make a lot of money from selling Linux, but they make money selling services related to Linux."