03.26.07
The Things Novell Does Not Want You to Know
While Novell would like you to believe that it has found prosperity in its controversial deal, truth suggests otherwise.
What Was Right–and Wrong–With Novell Brainshare
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6. Novell Business Claims (Miss): Careful here, Novell. Your marketing videos poke fun at Apple and Windows , and state that Linux has 30 million users. Perhaps. But only a fraction of those users are running Novell’s version of Linux. Also, your event guide states that Novell is a $1 billion company. In reality, Novell’s revenue for 2006 was $967 million. If there’s another $33 million floating around somewhere, shareholders would certainly love to see it.
Now, consider this: Earlier this month, Novell was quietly making office space available for rent, stirring up rumours that layouts are inevitable. Would you really want to put your money on a company that seemingly implodes?
But here is another possibility: Have you heard about Intel’s layoffs of 10,000 staff? Or IBM’s layoffs of 13,000 European staff last year? Intel is currently building a $2.5-billion center in China and IBM recently created 14,000 new jobs in India. This is by no means criticism of offshoring, but merely a word of warning. Novell could fit in this puzzle as well. Consider support jobs in Novell’s Mumbai Centre. People who reside overseas can truly help Novell’s margins. And that is where certification has just been obtained.
Novell Mumbai Centre Gets SCP Certification
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“Novell is the only Linux distributor to have this level of global capability. Now, Novell grows even stronger with the addition of the Mumbai centre,” said Mike Lyons, vice president, global support and services, Novell.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Ian said,
March 27, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I’ll say this much. If I can’t understand the support rep I’m talking to and I have a critical service down, I’ll blow a gasket. I abhor offshore IT sourcing.
The VAR Guy said,
March 27, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Roy: I’m not advocating that people boycott Novell. But I would like to say that you’ve got a rather interesting blog going here. Nice to have you visiting www.techiqmag.com in recent days, too.
Best,
Roy Schestowitz said,
March 27, 2007 at 11:11 pm
You have been covering some interesting stories and brought valuable inside information to people’s attention, so it’s worth keeping an eye. The OSA, for example, was probably unheard of until you let the word out.