JaBbA's Hut

RedHat is buying the Netscape Directory and Netscape Certificate server from AOL/Netscape for $25 Million.

What's the big deal?

Well, the Sun/AOL/Netscape deal forked the development of the Netscape Directory server. Sun took over the commercial version of the Directory server and turned it into the SunOne Directory Server. AOL took it internal for development, but it hasn't been selling it.

Sun's deal with Microsoft left the Linux-Based SunOne server a orphan. Sun only supports it on RedHat 7.2 (VERY old) and although the DS itself runs on more modern Linux kernels, the Administration server needed to control it won't run. The best-supported platforms for the SunOne server are Solaris and Windows.

The Netscape DS is the one piece of the SunOne suite that is absolutely best in class. Compared to eTrust, eDirectory, Tivoli, Active Directory the Netscape/SunOne LDAP is more standards-compliant, faster, leaner and better supported.

Up until now, the best option for a Linux-based LDAP server was the OpenLDAP Server. Although OpenLDAP is a very good LDAP server, it's very weak on administration and support is non-existent.

So this is big news. The best in class LDAP server well-supported on Linux.