ONE of the regulars from LinuxToday has just published a talkback saying that "Novell is bleeding to death." This was pretty much said there before and the layoffs which are coming confirm that there are issues. Anyway, here is the body of the message:
Novell Is Bleeding to Death
Novell was never going to die in one big go (these companies never do) but it is gradually bleeding to death and is not in a great position to ride out the current climate. I know everyone has been laying people off, but Novell have been having large rounds of layoffs for several years now and the situation hasn't improved.
From their deal with Microsoft that puts Microsoft in the driving seat, their complete inability to make anything out of the open source software that has dropped into their lap to the bleeding of their Netware, eDirectory and Groupwise businesses in favour of Windows Server, AD and Exchange - that other posters have pointed out here for years - the prognosis is looking terminal.
"We had one client who moved from a Novell/Microsoft-based environment to a Debian-based one and they saved something like 80 percent of the cost in the first year - they couldn't have done that moving to Red Hat - not when their licences cost €£1000," Callway said. He added that Sirius was set to announce a major educational project that would show the extent to which open source software was becoming more accepted.
The late Ray Noorda, founder of Novell, coined the word "co-opetition" to describe these sorts of deals, where competitors sometimes find it sensible to actually work closely together for the common good. Sometimes, as in this case, customers seem to win as well.
--Matt Asay, April 21st, 2008
Comments
saulgoode
2009-02-18 21:48:29
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-18 22:04:14
I'll fix that post.
Diamond Wakizashi
2009-02-19 00:54:01
BJ
2009-02-19 02:27:15
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-19 02:46:10
Ian
2009-02-19 03:42:33
How did the deal put Microsoft in the drivers seat?
their complete inability to make anything out of the open source software that has dropped into their lap
Yes, they have done absolutely nothing for open source software, never given back to the community, and Suse hasn't been upgraded since version 9.2. That was sarcasm by the way.
to the bleeding of their Netware, eDirectory and Groupwise businesses in favour of Windows Server, AD and Exchange - that other posters have pointed out here for years - the prognosis is looking terminal.
Ah, probably the only bit of truth in the otherwise nebulous cited post. This is the problem Novell has. It has been the problem since Exchange began to gain in popularity. Exchange and Windows mean AD. That vendor lock in is what is doing Novell's proprietary business in right now and you could say that marketing and sales have been a no-show as well.
NotZed
2009-02-19 08:47:57
Cash. They got (much needed) cash for the "IP" that MS was using without license.
And all it cost them was the loss of some of the street cred they got from buying suse and ximian (not from any inherent street cred). But that was mostly with people who don't write the cheques anyway.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-19 10:23:25
Shane Coyle
2009-02-19 10:44:39
Funny thing, they seem to have filed that 8-K asking for an extension until the close of business on the day that the MS deal was to be announced. Coincidental?
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-19 11:38:17