The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has signed a contract with Novell for the supply of Linux server and desktop products to its 33 universities.

Novell already supports 300,000 students in the states of Bavaria and Thuringia and the new deal will add another 560,000 students, Novell said.

The software involved is Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, along with Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Open Enterprise Server, Novell Identity Manager and Novell ZENworks.

The deal means that 40 percent of all German students now use Linux, Novell said. 

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