03.20.08
Might There Be Staffing/Skill Shortages at Novell, Despite Looming Layoffs?
Don’t support Novell until support is repaired
It would be somewhat impolite to slam Novell amidst their little bash (BrainShare), but the following could hardly escape without comment before the weekend. We already know about workforce reductions at Novell, as well as a staff exodus. So what can one conclude when gaps in Novell’s support services are reported?
Novell customers have hard time finding training
[…]
Johnson, a Novell user since 1989, said the migration fit well with his company, which had already started using open source software about a year before Novell’s 2003 decision to move to Linux.
That success, however, has created new problems. Metropolitan Bank Group has trouble finding adequate training for its IT workers in Novell and open source applications. The bank is also often hard-pressed to find qualified workers with adequate technical knowledge of the products.
It was a problem that had many attendees nodding in agreement at the annual Novell Brainshare 2008 conference, which is being held in the US.
Remember that Novell increasingly strives to enter a space where support is king and cash comes from maintenance services. Is SUSE the way to go then? Or might Oracle and Red Hat be better options? █
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 20, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I think you’re missing the point of that excerpt. It’s not about internal support at Novell or its employees. What it’s really hitting on is finding qualified external support for Novell’s products. Novell’s in a spot where just like the migration path away from NetWare, they need a migration path away from the CNA/CNE course track to something which fits their current offerings. Moreover, they need to make it worthwhile for people to follow a new track. There aren’t many people going for their CNE anymore. There are probably a nice size of people who are waiting to see what Novell does with their Linux based offerings before investing the time and money in a new track(which there is none released publically that I know of which matches the scope of the CNA/CNE). It’s a chicken and egg scenario.
Sebastiaan Veld said,
March 22, 2008 at 9:54 am
Sorry, Novell is clear about training and there are plenty of training and certification tracks moving from Netware to Linux.
CLA- Certified Linux Administrator
NCA- Novell Certified Administrator
NCE- Novell Certified Engineer
and others; take a look at http://www.novell.com/training/certinfo/ some just new and other are around for some time now.