08.27.07
Novell Lost Its Australia-New Zealand Vice President
It was only yesterday that we wrote about “a lot of SUSE developers” leaving because of the Novell/Microsoft deal. This information came from an analyst. Here is some information about a new departure from Novell, which went unannounced.
Christie, who became Novell’s Australia-New Zealand vice president after heading the vendor locally, left earlier this year and was replaced in the role by Rob Mills. Christie is the second ex-Novell GM to join Zintel — Peter Revell, who headed Novell in New Zealand from 1997 until 2003, became Zintel’s chief executive in October last year.
Other recent (and notable) departures affecting the highest level:
- Novell’s head in the United Kingdom
- Novell’s Vice President for Americas Operations
- Novell’s head in South Africa
- Jack Messman (the former CEO, who has left the board)
It would be reasonable to assume that many departures are overlooked. There are not only managers who leave, but also top developers. How long can Novell deny this for?
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.
Stephen said,
August 28, 2007 at 3:46 am
Roy, Roy, Roy - it’s a company of ~5,000 people. Individuals at every level come and go - that’s a feature of the modern corporation . Basic maths would indicate that the “exodus” you’ve been describing shows an attrition rate of
Stephen said,
August 28, 2007 at 3:48 am
( …continued because of truncation…)
…less than 1%.
Basically what I’m trying to say here is that It’s a little dull if only because you don’t describe any real implications. For example, did the developers who left affect the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Server 10 SP1? Nope. Is openSUSE progress and innovation slowing down? Nope. On the senior managers you’ve called out, have any implications arisen? Nope (or not that I’ve seen).
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 28, 2007 at 5:02 am
Yes, I’m aware of this, Stephen, but what happens when you hear about “a lot of SUSE developers” leaving and you also know the cause? The only one that we know actually joined after the deal is the father of SuSE. Novell is also hiring .NET folks, which (at least to me) sounds like more trouble than good.
Mike said,
August 28, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Does anyone know how many developers have actually left? That quote is from a Gartner analyst (the same Gartner you list as one of Microsoft’s shills) who didn’t list any names or numbers other than Allison’s.
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 28, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Yes, Gartner is extremely close to Microsoft and I have heaps of stories to prove this. Other than Allison, we are aware of (and wrote about) other top developers who left.