Citrix and Novell have agreed to collaborate on Linux Virtualization platform through the virtualization compatibility program from Novell.  Novell has certified Citrix Xenserver as a host platform for it SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.  The partnership means that customers who want to run SUSE Linux as a guest on XenServer can do so with the assurance that they will get support from both Novell and Citrix. Both companies said the collaboration will expand the choice for customers through increase virtualization interoperability.

Citrix Essentials was release last month the same time Citrix announced that its XenServer is available as a free download. Building on their long term relationship with Microsoft, Citrix said it new virtualization management software – Citrix Essentials will manage both its XenServer and Microsoft Windows 2008 Hyper-V. The Citrix Essentials suite of products/features is aimed at businesses that have a heterogeneous architecture of both Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Citrix and Intel announced today that they will be collaborating on the Citrix, XenDesktop systems. Citrix said they will be optimizing their application and desktop virtualization solution for the Intel’s Core 2 and Centrino 2 laptops.

“We’re delivering a complete solution around virtualizing on the client that will allow local execution and central image management,” said Louis Shipley, group vice-president and general manager of the XenServer product group.

Last month Citrix step up its effort to make a bigger impression in the virtualization and cloud computing market place. Citrix announced that their new version of Citrix XenServer is available as a free download (no 30/60 trial period). This is unprecedented for a software supplier to release a proprietary enterprise system with full features* free and you can use it in your production environment with unlimited installation. A move of this kind will definitely cause Microsoft and VMware to take note.