Novell will continue its march against Microsoft and any uptake of Vista despite a recent alliance with the software giant. “We’re excited by the muted reaction to Vista,” Ron Hovsepian, Novell president and CEO, told the media at a breakfast meeting in Sydney today. “We’re going to attack [Microsoft] vigorously and go after their footprint as much as we can,” Hovsepian said.
“We’re going to attack [Microsoft] vigorously and go after their footprint as much as we can,”
Whatever.
Novell appears to think they are still relevant.
In many shops, they are, whether you chose to believe it or not.
What people aren’t realizing is that only The Novell/Microsoft deal only pertains to Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server. Not Novell’s myriad of other products like NetWare, GroupWise, OES, OpenSuSE, ZENWorks, and etc…
Although they may be irrelevant to a few idealists, the rest of us find them quite relevant.
Novell appears to think they are still relevant.
Maybe this time they won’t go using Word of Mouth or Stealth marketing.
Maybe this time they won’t go using Word of Mouth or Stealth marketing.
That practice has really bit them in the rear for years. Novell has been cranking out some good products for years, but their marketing and sales has utterly failed the technology.
I’ll say this much, the only thing that is holding the wave of Exchange, Active Directory, and Windows Server flooding our server room, is Novell and the product path they have laid out using Linux. I suspect I’m not alone. Whether they are able to pull it off or not is still unknown. However, Novell is the only company that can offer Desktop Management, Groupware, Directory Services, and the related operating systems under one roof aside from Microsoft that I know of.
I’m not saying Novell products are the best in and for every situation(for example, the cross compatible groupwise client pretty much sucks), but they do offer a lot of Linux based options where the only other option is Microsoft. Again, their sales and marketing has failed them over the years.
Edited 2007-02-15 16:18
Better yet, maybe they’ll actually do something to address the lack of decent applications on Linux so that there are actually one to one replacements for each Windows applications – properly finished rather than half done, as with the case of Helix Banshee and the lack of mtp support.
Have they not heard the proverb about how hard it is to step on something bigger than yourself?
When people (companies) will learn: Partner with Microsoft and you will be screwed
You need to be modded to 6, sir.
I see this declaration as a way for Novell to distance itself from Microsoft, after being much maligned for their Patent Agreement some time ago.
Novell has a good product line for Desktop Linux they need to continue to develop their desktop lineup.
Enterprise version with SUPPORT and upgrades for x-number of years.
Desktop version to upgrade to the new release without all of the dependency problems and other known errors for x-number of years.
If you make a good OS it will sell itself, but when you bring something to market and disappear in 2 years then your product is doomed.
Since I have used Redhat since 1999 and they have pretty much abandoned their desktop Linux distro except for the RHEL release SuSE still has a slick desktop distro that needs to be marketed and PUSHED hard.
Linux is an AWESOME desktop/server solution, Marketing is they KEY to success most people have never heard of it and would use it forever if given the chance.
that people are going to take his words as a reallying cry. Most people myself included are tried of what he has to say.
I’m not ripping on Suse, just Novell’s leadership.
well try not to hurt yourself too much!
ms (supposedly) is better at selling your product than you are so….?????
Seems to me that Microsoft outsells just about anyone… so what’s your point? I think your just another clueless Novell basher.
“What are we going to do tonight, Brain?”
“We’re going to bash Novell!… and then take over the world!”
No, no they won’t
Doesn’t anyone remember the early 90’s, when Ray Ozzie, who was Novell’s CEO at that time, (and hated Bill Gates something fierce), went on a buying spree, intending to compete with Microsoft all the way up and down their product line? They bought Wordperfect for $1.1 Billion, got dBase, made deals with Borland for Quattro Pro, got DR-DOS and went crazy fighting them. The Netware guys got starved for R&D funds and that’s when Microsoft hired Jim Allchin and Dave Cutler from Digital and brought us Windows NT. Novell nearly went bankrupt and the effects of those decisions are still lingering.
Needless to say, it seems like history is repeating itself. To quote Santayana, “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history, are doomed to repeat them.”
I agree with the gist of your post, but you’re actually thinking of Ray Noorda, not Ray Ozzie. Ozzie was the Lotus Notes architect.
LANTastic was so horrible….ugh, I remember those hours banging my head against the wall with that garbage.
I don’t think laying on your back with your legs spread constitutes “fighting”.
> I don’t think laying on your back with your legs spread constitutes “fighting”.
You got it backwards, it should be:
I don’t think bending over and biting into a pillow constitutes “fighting”.
LOL!
No, but I think trading homoerotic/erotic metaphors constitutes latent desires.
Why, you interested?
HA! Alright, you win.