11.10.07
Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part IV: Novell is Regrouping and the Maureen O’Gara Shill is Back
After a recent departure, Novell names its new Channel Chief.
Pat Bernard, a former Hyperion exec, takes the channel reins as Steve Erdman steps down.
Thje company also seems to have reorganised the way it handles the channel.
Novell is extensively overhauling its channel organization, including making changes among its channel management ranks, in a bid to increase sales through resellers and cut the company’s sales costs. While details remain scarce, the changes include reducing the number of accounts Novell will service through its direct sales force and inc
Novell is creating some jobs in Dublin. This was reported before (not necessarily materialising though).
As reported by siliconrepublic.com last month, Novell started the year with 100 people in Sandyford and this has grown to 125 people. By the end of this year the company will be employing close to 200 people in Dublin.
Matt Asay offers a positive work for Novell, for a change.
Several years ago I was at Novell while the company struggled with a difficult dilemma: How to grow revenues with its then-primary cash cow (NetWare) was declining at an 11% annual clip, a rate that was accelerating. The company responded to this decline by acquiring SUSE as a way to hold down NetWare losses, porting NetWare services to SUSE Linux (Open Enterprise Server), and shift to the Linux growth engine to replace NetWare.
Then there’s Novell’s positive role in the fight against SCO
So it is that every time it appears that SCO’s cases are finally coming to an end the company seems to find a new way to continue its litigation. The bankruptcy court’s ruling on whether SCO can be sold will be SCO’s next critical test. If the deal with York is allowed, SCO’s Unix and Linux litigation seems certain to continue for at least another year. This SCO soap opera is far from over.
Maureen O’Gara is still highly delusional and she’s posting bogus articles about Novell selling UNIX to SCO before the trial and even dropping its case against SCO. It’s amazing what disinformation can reach the ‘tubes’ nowadays, especially when one is self-publishing (without peers, let alone an editor).
Look at the bright side though. At least O’Gara no longer posts incognito, so you know immediately which ‘articles’ are safe to skip and altogether ignore. She is still attacking the GPL and Groklaw, so little has changed, albeit she’s more restrained. Laura Didio has been off the radar for a very long time.
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.
eet said,
November 10, 2007 at 6:23 am
How’s the website going? Anyone boycotting Novell, yet?
C’mon, get girlfriends, dudes!
Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an abusive Internet troll
whatseet said,
November 10, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I wanna bet that Shane has one…
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 10, 2007 at 5:45 pm
He’s married. “eet” is trolling anyway.
whatseet said,
November 11, 2007 at 1:33 am
So what’s about you Roy? I think eet has a point.
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 11, 2007 at 1:48 am
I’m 25, so I’m not married yet. I don’t see why you bring personal lives into a technical blog.