Novell Tuesday furthered its Linux initiative by joining the Open Source Development Labs, a consortium of companies that are accelerating Linux adoption.

Novell will participate in the Data Center Linux working group, which is focused on hardening Linux for use in the data center.

OSDL is the organization Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, joined in June of this year. It is the organization that will represent Torvald's in the SCO/IBM dispute.

Members of the OSDL include Cisco, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, and Sun among others.

In other news, Novell announced that it has released e-Directory for HP-UX networks. Users can download it here.

For years, Novell eDirectory™ has made it possible for leading developers and enterprise customers to strengthen the security and simplify the management of complex, heterogeneous networks. Novell is now extending these proven benefits to yet another platform with Novell eDirectory 8.7.1 on HP-UX. Support for HP-UX includes all features currently available in eDirectory 8.7.1, such as secure administration via Web browser and wireless devices via Novell iManager; support for multiple Internet standards, such as LDAP; and advanced authentication methods including biometrics, smart cards and tokens.