SAP is recommending SUSE as its preferred Linux platform, the stuff of which stacks are made, and Novell is going start being the first line of defense for people running SAP applications on SUSE.

SAP's great rival, Oracle, of course is now peddling its own anti-Red Hat Linux.

Novell is supposed to handle both the apps and the operating system under a maintenance-and-support arrangement with SAP styled SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Priority Support.

The program is supposed to focus on optimizing the price/performance of mission-critical workloads and includes volume discounts for application configurations. And there's a special on for the next 90 days.