05.03.08
Do-No-Evil Saturday – Part I: Various Bits and Bobs from the Past Week
Let us run down very quickly through some of the news from the past week, especially where Novell is involved or mentioned.
This first item is mind-boggling because right there in the headline is claims that “Microsoft’s Contribution Was TCP/IP.” Huh?
Microsoft pushed its own proprietary LAN Manager and unroutable NBF protocol in the early 90’s. The strategy of the day among network software vendors was that if proprietary protocols could be maintained, then locks on entire corporations’ networks might also be maintained. When that strategy failed for Microsoft, it first reverse engineered Novell’s IPX (because Novell wouldn’t license the technology — it was part of their competitive DR-DOS), in order to allow Microsoft’s operating systems to interoperate with Novell Networks. Realizing that only strengthened Novell’s position, Microsoft ultimately championed the open standard TCP/IP protocol.
Novell’s role in this story aside, there is no mentioning of the BSD code. Credit blindly given to Microsoft? Need we also assume that Microsoft invented the word processor, the spreadsheet and the graphical user interface just because these were made widespread?
“Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo.”
–Bill Gates
The following video appeared on YouTube around the time of BrainShare 2008. There is now a version with “Brazilian Portuguese Subtitle.”
We have made an Ogg version of it.
Mentioned last week was the news/announcement from Teradata, which uses SUSE. Here is an actual article about it.
At the cheapest end of the new offering is the Teradata 550 SMP, which is a departmental data warehouse that has been developed to run a single application or support test and development workloads. The platform supports up to six terabytes of storage capacity, and operates on either Novell SUSE Linux or Windows.
The Teradata 2500 sits at the middle of the newly-announced range, and is priced at $134,000 per terabyte. The fully integrated, scalable platform sports dual-core Intel processors, enterprise-class storage, open Novell SUSE Linux 64-bit operating system, and the Teradata 12.0 database and utilities.
Moving on to some less business-oriented stuff, the local press mentioned some other activities at Novell.
TUESDAY
• The Utah Valley Entrepreneurs’ Forum; Omniture; the Open Source Technology Center at Novell; the Provo Business Development Corp.; Utah Science, Technology and Research; and the Utah Fund of Funds will host a free lecture series featuring speaker Josh Coates, who will discuss “Raising Capital: The Simple, Well-Understood Path.” Make sure that the projected numbers for your startup tech venture work on paper before launching that business. Aim for a realistic 60-70 percent gross margin with a $500,000 contingency buffer. And don’t put the task of raising capital before the operations of your business on your list of priorities. Time: 11:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. Location: Mountain View room, Novell Cafeteria, 1800 S. Novell Place, Provo. Please purchase your own lunch at the Novell cafeteria prior to these events. Contact Linda at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or at (801) 705-9303 to reserve your place.
Mentioned last week was also a video clip that brought responses from Novell executives. There is a followup to this in Computer World.
Of course, “wow” can mean a lot of different things. In this case, it seemed to translate to something like, “It’s funny, but whoa. Where in the world did this come from? And how on earth did you get the CEO of Novell and these other people to play along by asking for advice in these video clips?”
Here is a bit about Novell at an educational event in Utah. Novell was there alongside Microsoft.
It was a big day for many teachers and students; listening to experts from Microsoft, Novell, and Certiport about industry insights.
Watch Novell’s and Microsoft’s relationship in this new press release.
WS-Management Has Been Ratified as a Final Standard Based on Implementation Experience
[...]
“A key piece of the technical collaboration agreement between Microsoft and Novell is to support the DMTF’s WS-Management as a standards-based, interoperable protocol that leverages the web to manage desktops, servers and virtualized environments across distributed infrastructures,” said Eric Anderson, vice president of engineering at Novell. “Novell is committed to bringing open source and open standards together to provide system management interoperability across mixed IT environments, which will ultimately help to reduce the cost and complexity of IT management.”
In a fear-inspiring piece from CIO Magazine you could see Novell mentioned only in a semi-flattering context.
Novell and Sun for example, are working to re-explain and emphasize to the press and customers that they “get” virtualization. When you think virtualization, you probably think one name: VMware. (Did IBM pop into your mind? I didn’t think so.) The bigs other than VMware find themselves having to work hard to win your virtual affection.
And here is the announcement about Novell and Microsoft working together in this area.
Novell to work with Microsoft to build upon technical collaboration agreement and develop advanced management solutions based on open source and industry standards
Some days ago we included the press releases from Xandros and Microsoft.
Jacqueline Emigh, who covers Novell frequently, showed the readers of Beta News how Novell is praising Microsoft.
In another expansion to their 18-month-old interoperability agreement, Microsoft and Novell introduced software tools designed to let systems administrators monitor Linux, Unix, and Windows servers from within Windows.
[...]
“This is a great milestone,” Wagner told BetaNews. “I really applaud Microsoft for joining the open source community.”
Heise Online Weighed in as well.
Of course, Microsoft will not be reinventing IT management by taking these steps. But it will improve its reputation in data centers. It will take Microsoft some time to catch up with CA, HP, Tivoli, and the rest when it comes to heterogeneity.
Network World was more pessimistic.
– Microsoft this week set its sites on becoming a dominant enterprise management vendor, but experts and users say first it will have to define the scope of its goals, improve the platform, and prove it can be the caretaker of non-Windows systems.
The company laid out its plans this week at its annual Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) for a cross-platform enterprise data-center management infrastructure that includes hooks into Linux and Unix systems.
Here are the coverages from Disinformation Week and from CRN.
IBM is still collaborating with Novell, no matter some of the world’s opinion about it..
“Novell is pleased to be part of this alliance with IBM and others to help customers better manage data complexity along with operational, energy and cost efficiencies, which is precisely the value proposition around SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and virtualization in the data center,” said Carlos Montero-Luque, vice president of product management for Open Platform Solutions at Novell. “Novell is committed to green computing, virtualization, security and data center management, all priorities of the new program.”
There is an article about this press release too.
IBM has pulled in technology notables, including Brocade and Citrix, as well as Emulex, Eaton, Juniper Networks, Novell, RedHat, Sun and VMware. Participating vendors will gain increased exposure to potentially new clients, and benefit from joint go-to-market activities and joint-development projects a well as exposure to early interoperability development, according to IBM.
Lastly, here is another interview with Volker Smid of Novell.
We’ve made an Ogg version available.
Next up: OpenSUSE, Xandros and Linspire. █
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