11.08.08
Posted in Microsoft, Novell, NetWare, IBM at 12:42 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Microsoft wants to disconnect Novell
Microsoft and Novell share a similar dilemma and Novell is the weaker party in this relationship. Microsoft keeps ’stealing’ some of the latter’s legacy business and therefore it has control over Novell’s destiny. There are some more reasons for Novell to be skeptical about Microsoft’s intent, based on this analysis from IDG. James Gaskin opines:
Win2k came out a year and a half before Windows XP and bridged the gap between 9x and XP, reworking the kernel and linking tightly to Active Directory, enabling Microsoft to kick the last chance of a Novell NetWare revival out the door.
Back in 1988, Novell was hugely prevalent. Here are some numbers.
The numbers are staggering, considering the youth of the LAN industry. There are about 220,000 NetWare-based file servers connected to more than 2 million IBM-compatible PCs. By my calculations, that’s one-fifteenth of the world’s PC population.
Also worth noting is the following article from 1990. It’s about Novell and Lotus joining forces. Both were victims of Microsoft’s vicious — if not illegal — tactics.
The Lotus Development Corporation, which is known for its popular 1-2-3 spreadsheet, and Novell Inc. announced yesterday that they had tentatively agreed to a $1.5 billion merger in an effort to deliver a competitive blow to the Microsoft Corporation, the leader in personal computer software.
A week ago, Tim Bray pointed out that “Companies don’t hire people. People hire people.” It was also interesting to find last week’s article about Ozzie’s roots: “Ozzie, a software pioneer known for creating Lotus Notes, joined Microsoft in 2005. ”
Rivals applying for jobs at Microsoft is one of the phases in Microsoft’s infamous Slog tactics. There’s lot of
studying to do on this and Microsoft does not mean well. It’s already scooping up Novell employees [1, 2] (background here), even seniors [1, 2].
We’ll report as soon as we find more appropriate precedence. █
Reading-up time
“Pearly Gates and Em-Ballmer
One promises you heaven and the other prepares you for the grave.”
–Ray Noorda, Novell
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Posted in Microsoft, Novell, NetWare, Mail at 11:50 am by Roy Schestowitz
Abbreviated overview
IT WAS A QUIET WEEK. THERE WAS really nothing major, so let’s dive right into the few isolated things that have happened with Novell (or things which relate to Novell).
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11.01.08
Posted in Novell, Marketing, Servers, NetWare, Mail, AppArmor at 8:43 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Happy Halloween. Do not evil.
A large number of isolated picks are worth including here. There was nothing major happening at all, but a few mentions of Novell here and there ought to be pointed out for future reference.
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10.31.08
Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Novell, NetWare, Open XML, Mail at 12:15 pm by Roy Schestowitz
“Our partnership with Microsoft continues to expand.”
–Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO
ON MICROSOFT’S BEHALF, Novell has already caused so much to harm the Free software community. It turned its back on the GNU GPL, leading to a domino effect that has had Turbolinux and Xandros sell out and Linspire close shop. This also fueled FUD attacks on GNU/Linux, appeased regulators for no good reasons, enabled Microsoft to exclude competitors from virtualisation [1, 2, 3] and so forth.
What has Microsoft done for Novell recently? Well, other than those payments that perpetuate exclusion and enable further harm such as OOXML, how does Microsoft repay? Standing out in the news this week was the following report about Brighton Council tossing Novell out. In whose favour? Microsoft.
Brighton & Hove City Council is moving its IT infrastructure onto a single network that will provide Microsoft software for all its 4,500 staff.
The council previously had a number of disparate servers and IT systems including a Lotus Notes email system and Novell networking technology.
It appeared in several on-line magazines in the UK.
Novell’s special partner is also publishing whitepapers that directly compare (and dismiss) Novell’s products. Here is the latest example from 4 days ago. It’s a case study.
The company was using a Novell-based networking and e-mail system, which it found increasingly challenging to integrate with its business and IT applications from other vendors. As a result, the company decided to standardize on Microsoft technologies, migrating to Active Directory®, Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007, and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
When will Novell realise that its no-compete-like clause/agreement with Microsoft is an abomination? Microsoft asks Novell to take a nap while its ‘robbing’ its core business, which accounts for about 80% of Novell’s revenue.
Novell won’t survive by following this route because its cash-generating produces run dry and it’s allowing this to happen. It’s almost as though Novell gave up and handed away leadership. █
Is this a future?
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10.25.08
Posted in Red Hat, Microsoft, Novell, NetWare, Standard, Mail at 5:06 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Chase the Sun
Finance
It has not been a brilliant week for Novell’s shareholders. But some of the press at least alluded to Novell’s performance. Here is Novell being labeled “cash-rich,” which Novell itself claims to be despite the buybacks [1, 2] that may change this.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, SLES/SLED, Servers, NetWare, SUN, IBM, Mail, xandros at 11:42 am by Roy Schestowitz
THERE have been quite a few articles of interest over the past week. SUSE appears in conjunction with Red Hat a lot of the time, but sometimes it’s treated as its own unique entity. Such is the case in the following post from pseudonym ‘Paul Murphy’, whose previous headline, “Desktop Unix: MacOS X and “Sousa Linicks”,” was changed shortly after he had initially published it.
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10.11.08
Posted in SCO, Novell, NetWare, Videos, Mail at 3:57 pm by Roy Schestowitz
Today, for a change, we publish only a couple catchup posts (there’s not much to cover), the first one being about GNU/Linux. This second one catches “everything else”, starting with SCO.
SCO
The Novell-SCO trial has not been through anything too exciting. Groklaw was the only site with some coverage. Here is the first post.
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10.04.08
Posted in GNU/Linux, SCO, Novell, Marketing, NetWare, Videos, HP, FOSS, Mail at 5:16 pm by Roy Schestowitz
There are heaps of articles that we have not yet touched on. They were accumulated for just over two weeks. Once again, we haven’t sufficient time to comment on them all, so here is just an organised list with a few remarks.
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« Previous entries ·
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.