With its latest entry into the Linux desktop market, Novell plans to make Linux more secure and make that security easier to manage, company officials said at the LinuxWorld conference. The software maker decided against adopting security modifications to the Linux kernel developed by the National Security Agency, known as SE Linux, because of the system is extremely difficult to configure. Instead, the Waltham, Mass. firm developed a framework for restricting applications known as AppArmor, which it released as an open-source project in January.

"We looked at SE Linux as a technology and we couldn't figure out how someone who didn't have a PhD could configure it," said Holger Dyroff, vice president of product management for Novell. "We are insisting that security be easy."

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