Hubert Mantel was one of four founders of SuSE Hubert Mantel, one of the founders of the SuSE Linux project, has resigned from Novell Inc., which acquired SuSE in January 2004.A Novell spokesman confirmed Mantel’s resignation, which was announced on a SuSE e-mail list this week . “That’s all we can say at this stage,” the spokesman said Thursday. “We don’t as a policy comment on individual employees.”Mantel was one of four founders of SuSE, a German consulting group that focused on creating a packaged version of Linux. He was a long-time maintainer of the SuSE project, but Novell noted that dozens of other developers work on SuSE. Mantel didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.Earlier this month, Novell announced restructuring moves including a 600-worker layoff and a plan to focus its efforts on high-growth markets such as Linux.The company said it is looking at selling off its Celerant Consulting unit, with the company planning to keep a separate IT consulting group that focuses its own products. Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business