Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part II: Virtualisation, GWAVACon, GroupWise and More

Finance



NOVELL'S financial results for this quarter are due in about a fortnight and it seems likely that Novell will announce layoffs around this time.

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) will issue a press release providing an overview of financial results for its first fiscal quarter 2009 on Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 4 pm ET.




Virtualisation



When Novell does not help Microsoft distort the virtualisation market it quite successfully works with some other products and companies. Here is one example about Xenocode.

And Xenocode-virtualized applications can be deployed over the Internet, intranets, USB devices, and existing desktop management infrastructure. The technology was even licensed by Novell back in September of 2008 and is being leveraged in Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization.


On ZENworks and Xenocode:

I should note that my previous work with these tools showed that the method of enabling interaction between otherwise separated applications is a useful distinguishing point that is well worth adding to your evaluation criteria. The last time I looked, Novell's ZENworks Application Virtualization (actually Xenocode's product family) did this the best.


We've mentioned Xenocode in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Here is some more information about Novell and VMware:

VMware on Tuesday announced VMware View Open Client and claimed that it advances its vClient Initiative toward universal clients.

The new software, available under the GNU Lesser GPL 2.1, enables IT to host and manage user desktops in the datacenter, and lets partners use the source code to tailor and optimize devices for creating virtual desktop solutions, the company said.

[...]

VMware View Open Client features secure tunneling via SSL, two-factor authentication in the form of RSA SecurID, Novell SLETC Add-on RPM package, and a command-line interface.


Also on VMware:

VMware has released an open source virtual desktop infrastructure client, aiming to make it easy for partners to build their own applications or devices around its code. The goal eventually is to make possible a "universal client" that will support multiple environments.

[...]

Some of the features included in this release support secure tunneling using SSL, two-factor authentication with RSA SecurID, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Thin Client Add-On RPM package and a full command line interface.


Mail



GWAVACon ended very quietly (almost too quietly) and here is a press release that came from there.

GWAVA, Novell's largest collaboration partner, announced today at GWAVACon in Las Vegas the availability of Reload 3, the latest version of the top selling disaster recovery and backup solution for Novell GroupWise. The new version focuses on speed of data collection and recovery in times of crisis.


Novell has a hard time denying the demise of GroupWise, which will soon get a lift from iPhone.

For those of you not using and iPhone, this also means you can sync to on supported devices too, such as the Palm Centro, Palm Pre, Palm Treo Pro and other Windows Mobile devices and Symbian OS.


Adium turns out to have GroupWise messaging support as well.

Final verdict: Although it supports several messaging protocols (including the corporate environment networks Novell GroupWise and Lotus Sametime), Adium lacks webcam conferencing.


On GroupWise migrations:

"The data stays on-site at corporate headquarters, but management of that server takes place by Azaleos. We take the headache out of the product, but do not force the customer to push the data up into the cloud," Gode said. "The other thing we get are customers looking to migrate from a [lower] level of Exchange, 2000 or 2003, to 2007. As part of that migration, they don't want to do it themselves. Or they're migrating from [Novell] GroupWise or [Lotus] Notes and they don't want to do it or they don't have the expertise in-house. They don't want to hire or train for Exchange," Gode said.


Security



The serious security problems in GroupWise were already mentioned last week [1, 2], but here are some more details.

Novell has released updates for GroupWise to close a number of vulnerabilities. One critical issue is a buffer overflow in the GroupWise Internet Agent (GWIA), which can be manipulated to allow the injection and execution of code. Other updates close issues with cross-site scripting, Cross-Site Request Forgery and Script Insertion gaps.


There was also a SUSE issue.

Identity Management



Novell found a client in Johnsonville Sausage (also published here and here). Well, it's better than Sesame Street [1, 2, 3], right?

Wisconsin-based Johnsonville Sausage, the number-one national brand of brats, Italian sausage, smoked-cooked links and fresh breakfast sausage links, has implemented Novell€® identity and endpoint management solutions to achieve a single point of control for thousands of employee and partner digital identities and more than 600 desktop systems. By automating identity management with Novell solutions, Johnsonville Sausage has reduced user management time and costs by 80 percent.


People



Based on this news report, SiCortex turns up to be headed by a former Novell executive, so in case SiCortex and Novell make some deal in the future, it's worth bearing in mind.

SiCortex has 84 employees and is headed up by CEO Chris Stone, a former Novell executive responsible for engineering and product management from 2002 to 2004.


Novell and SiteScape are close [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] and their link is explained in the following new article:

The initial reception for the tags has been positive, particularly in the aerospace and defense industries, according to Tego founder and CEO Timothy Butler, who also founded collaboration software maker SiteScape Inc. in Maynard, which was sold to Novell Inc. in 2007. Airplane manufacturers Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. are in the process of evaluating the tags, according to Butler, though he declined to discuss the details of the relationships. The Department of Defense has also expressed interest in the company’s system, he said.


Partners



Here is another technical umbrella that has Novell underneath it:

OASIS Approves 9 New Web Services Standards



[...]

Among the organizations involved in approving the standards were IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Adobe, BMC, CA, Intel, Nokia, Novell, Progress Software, Red Hat, SAP, SOA Software, Software, TIBCO, VeriSign and the U.S. Veterans Health Administration.


Marketing



This video has just shown up in YouTube.



Enjoy.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Taking Stock of a Good and Productive Week
We shall now be taking a break, unpacking the new hard drive (8 TB), and making backups of everything
Ageism in Tech
Your protocol is "old"...
In Norway, Android/Linux Has Just Hit All-Time High (First Time Since 2020), GNU/Linux Already Very Prevalent
Despite its small population size, Norway gave us Qt and many other things
Microsoft's Mass Layoffs Very Wide-Ranging, Media Focused on Gaming Though Microsoft Mass-Firing Lawyers and "AI" Staff (Contradicting Its Supposed "Investment" in "AI")
Microsoft plans to fire almost half a thousand people in legal roles
2012 Article About the Free Software Foundation Blasting Canonical/Ubuntu Over Adoption of "Secure" Boot (Microsoft's Remote Control Over GNU/Linux Since PCs' Power-on)
By Katherine Noyes (article has since then became 404, not found)
 
Gemini Links 20/07/2025: Summertime and OCC25 Wrap-up
Links for the day
Jamie Zawinski Complained About Wayland, Then Decided to Give It a Go, Now Complains Again About Wayland
Ask IBM (Red Hat) why it's worth throwing so much away just for Wayland fanaticism
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu, LinuxSecurity, and More
former "Linux" blogs which basically became slopfarms
Links 20/07/2025: More GAFAM Lawsuits, Layoffs, and SLAPPs
Links for the day
Nice Recovery (From Actual Fire) by PCLinuxOS, New Version of PCLinuxOS Released, Now Top of DistoWatch
PCLinuxOS is a community-driven distro
More Microsoft Shutdowns That Mostly Slipped Under the Radar
Remember what happened to books 'sold' by Microsoft?
Microsoft Lunduke Still Fighting Cancel Culture With... Cancel Culture
There will be no "winners" in such 'debates'
The History of Daily Links and Politics
"I support Wayland, but I also support abortion..."
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: Git For Authors and Filtered Antenna
Links for the day
UEFI 'Secure' Boot Abuses by Microsoft to be Brought Up in the UK High Court in 3 Months
we'll seek compensation
Next Year It'll Be Half a Decade Since the Fall of Freenode (and IRC is Still Doing OK)
Our IRC network is still accessible using the exact same software that ran in Windows 3.x
Lupa Will Soon Know of 3,100+ Active Gemini Capsules
And some people in the "Small Web" try to tell us that Gemini is dying?
The Slopfarms Are Taking Real News Articles and Replacing Them With Lies Generated by Machines
Bluntly speaking, Fagioli is nothing short of an online scammer
Links 19/07/2025: Techtarget to Cull 10% of Staff, New Threats to Free Press in the US (Home of Dangerous and Violent Stranglers From Microsoft)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: "Climate Justice” and Forking Programs
Links for the day
What Wayland and Microsoft/IBM systemd Have in Common
focus on what IBM (Red Hat) is pushing while running over critics.
Linux Already Has About 60% of the "Market"
"When mentioning the client side," opines an associate, "it is essential to recite the list of other markets where Microsoft is negligible or a no-show. It is repetitive to do so, but it needs saying -- often."
Finland (and NATO) Must Move to GNU/Linux and Dump Microsoft Even Faster
"Microsoft is not a technology problem, it is a staffing problem."
The Microsofters We Sued Helped Microsoft Make GNU/Linux 'Expire' This Year
"Linux and Secure Boot certificate expiration"
linuxconfig.org Joins linuxtechlab.com and Others, Becomes a Slopfarm With Fake Linux 'Articles' (LLM Slop)
They contain "linux" in their domain names, but they are just slopfarms
Links 19/07/2025: Microsoft Cuts in China and Wall Street Journal Sued for Reporting on Jeffrey Epstein
Links for the day
Debian Can Dump Blind Users Because I am Not Blind
the sort of mentality we're up against
Fascistic Policies Got 'Normalised' in 'Public Office'. Let's Not Let the Same Happen in 'Tech'.
Political discourse typically guides what's "normal" and what "good citizens" should believe/feel
The European Patent Office Cannot Attract Proficient Patent Examiners Who Master Their Domain
They are enablers and facilitators of corruption
Yes, Your Mastodon Instance Will Also Shut Down
Few people run a one-person instance in the Fediverse
The Demise of GAFAM Necessitates Greater and Broader Awareness
Morale at Microsoft is really bad
Free Software Foundation Reaches 75% of Funding Goal
Not bad for this "Fosschild"
Slopwatch: 7 New Examples of Fake 'Linux' Slop Pieces (Plagiarism With Misinformation)
Serial Sloppers need to be shunned
Links 19/07/2025: Kapo-berg Settles, Software Patents Challenged
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 18, 2025
Links 18/07/2025: Peace With PKK and Connie Francis Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: Alhena 5.1.8 and Bornhack 2025
Links for the day
How to Top Up a "Limited Liability" With Even More Limitations (Dodging Accountability in the UK)
Some people call it a "shell game". Sometimes it's done for tax evasion purposes.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Inches Towards 75% of Fund-Raising Target
Will the cutoff date be extended again?
Gemini Space (or Geminispace) Grows, But Usage of Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops Further
Ideally, all Gemini capsules should use self-signed certificates
Links 18/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs in Activision, The New Stack (Sponsored by Microsoft) Complains About Openwashing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: OCC25 Gnus for Reading Usenet and RSS Feeds, Small Web Updates
Links for the day
[Meme] 9AM Meeting at Brett Wilson LLP
Brett Wilson LLP in space
Listing as Staff People Who Left the Company More Than Six Years Earlier
There are apparently no laws against that
Brian Fagioli Shovels Up LLM Slop (Plagiarism) Onto Slashdot, Then Uses Slashdot for Affirmation or as Badge of Honour
Notice how some of his latest slop is presented ("as featured on Slashdot")
Social Control Media Productivity
Snapping photos of the bone
The Law Firm SLAPPing Us For the Microsofters Lost 72% of Its Tangible Assets in the Past Year, According to Its Own Reports
That might help explain why they're willing to tolerate serial stranglers from Microsoft as clients
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com Slopfarm and Slopfarms Propped Up by Google News
"As LLM slop is foisted onto the WWW in place of knowledge and real content, it now gets ingested and processed by other LLMs, creating a sort of ouroboros of crap."
Links 18/07/2025: Weather Events and Health Hazards
Links for the day
Microsoft's All-Time Low in Finland
Microsoft is in a freefall
Security: Shane Wegner & Debian statement of incompetence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 17, 2025