The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), sponsor of Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, has announced that the Network File System v4 (NFSv4) for Linux is available in SUSE Enterprise Linux from Novell.

The OSDL said that this milestone reflects the maturity of NFSv4 for Linux in the enterprise.

NFS is a mechanism for sharing files across a broad range of platforms. While enterprises have relied on NFS to support mission-critical applications for several decades, other shared file systems provide features that earlier versions of NFS lacked. So to close this gap, NFSv4 client and server code was developed for Linux in 2005.

"NFS testing has been a key priority for OSDL and the Linux development community, and we have passed a significant milestone for it to be ready for enterprise validation," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL.

"Large and small enterprises can contribute to the product's overall stability and performance by validating it in their environments and providing feedback and patches, which gives them an opportunity to improve the product for their specific environments and to fully participate in the community."

"Novell shipped NFSv4 as part of our SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform in July 2006," said Carlos Montero-Luque, vice president of product management for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell.

"A cornerstone of the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform is its interoperability. NFSv4 enables SUSE Linux Enterprise to easily and quickly integrate into a customer's heterogeneous IT environment."