11.06.07
Some of Novell’s Recent Departures
Richard Seibt seems to have found a new role, which is possibly just a casual or part-time occupation. Regardless, he is no longer involved with Novell, based on the following new bit of text.
Richard Seibt currently focuses on Open Source projects and serves as an Advisor to Open-Xchange, Inc. Previously, Richard served as CEO of SUSE Linux as well as President of Novell Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where he was responsible for leading all aspects of Novell’s operations in EMEA.
David Patrick seems to have quietly left, but it doesn’t say when. Admittedly, this may have happened quite some time ago.
In conjunction with the funding, Xkoto named David Patrick as the company’s new CEO. Patrick was previously vice president and general manager of Waltham-based Novell Inc., which he joined in 2003 as part of Novell’s acquisition of Boston-based Ximian Inc., where Patrick was president and CEO.
It remains interesting to see the movement of high-profile figures at Novell. Quite a few of them left some time in the past year. The list below is very incomplete, but it gives a sample of stories we have covered.
Related items:
- Gartner's George Weiss: A Lot of SUSE Developers Left Because of Microsoft/Novell Deal
- Our Interview with Jeremy Allison
- Novell Lost Its Australia-New Zealand Vice President
- Stafford Masie to Join Google
- Novell's Key Linux Advocate Leaves Company (Updatedx2)
- Novell Loses Another Samba Developer
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.
James Maybach said,
November 7, 2007 at 1:31 am
Seibt left Novell in 2005 –
you guys are really up to date!
Anonymous said,
November 7, 2007 at 2:22 am
David Patrick left early 2006, about the “quietly”: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/49676.html
> you guys are really up to date!
James - you don’t take this site as reliable or accurate, right?
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 7, 2007 at 2:52 am
To be fair, I did not know (nor did I argue) that they left after the deal with Microsoft. In fact, I explicitly said (wrote): “…but it doesn’t say when. Admittedly, this may have happened quite some time ago.”
There are examples of more previous departures appended, including one which indicates there’s a trend.
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 11, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Note:
Poster “Anonymous” comes from 217.226.35.127
“James Maybach” posted from 217.226.30.210
It seems likely that it is the same person replying to himself (or a colleague).
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_%28Internet%29
James Maybach said,
November 12, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Serious investigation here! Two out of 14 million customers of one of the largest european ISPs already make sockpuppets. OTOH again that gives a pretty good picture about the overall quality of this site.
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 12, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Here is an example of one person using 3 different identities in the comments in order to attack the messenger.
James Maybach said,
November 13, 2007 at 2:04 am
Glad you acknowledge the deduction here being anchorless
Ashanti Robinson said,
January 16, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Novell can suck my dick(if I had one) :^P